LI 



OF CONGRESS. 



UNITE" 



:ca. 



AN 



HISTORICAL ACCOUNT 



OF THE 



PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 



CHEEKY VALLEY, N. Y. 



Given in compliance with the recommendation of General Assembly for 
Preservation in the Archives of the Presbyterian 
Historical Society at Philadelphia. 



j3Y J3.EY. ji. JJ. JSwiNNERTON, Jk. JA t) J^RINC 
Jhe PRESENT J^ASTOR. 




CHERRY VALLEY, N. Y., 
"gazette" peint. 
1876. 



Copyrighted. 




PEESBYTERIAN CHURCH 



AT 



CHERRY VALLEY, N. Y. 



In compliance with the recommen- 
dation of the General Assembly, I 
propose to give in the following 
pages, an Historical Account of the 
Presbyterian Church at Cherry Val- 
ley, N. Y. for preservation in the 
Archives of the Presbyterian Histor- 
ical Society at Philadelphia. 

The history of a Church is much 
more than a mere account of the 
church buildings it may have occu- j 
pied. It is a record of spiritual 
progress or decline, embracing the 
narrative of the efforts and sacrifices 
of piety, with the vicissitudes of re- 
ward and trial which at times have 
encouraged and retarded the cause 
of religion, virtue, and culture. And 
yet the story of the consecrated edi- j 
fice, the spot sanctificed by worship, 
and the local habitation of the most 
sacred associations of the people, is 
invested with an interest scarcely 
second to that of the inward history. 



And then, such is the nature of mor- 
al advances that they cannot be made 
matter of adequate record. They 
consist of the manifold individual 
improvements which are wrought in 
a multitude of minds and hearts, an 
aggregate of which can never be 
gathered up, nor their causes exact- 
ly ascertained. We can only infer 
something of the extent and character 
| of those advances, by marking the 
changes which take place in things 
closely associated, but which are 
outward in their character. 

It can probably be said of few 
churches in this country, that there 
have been erected for their use, so 
many as Jive successive houses of 
| worship. The edifice we now occupy 
is the fifth building that has been 
raised and dedicated to the use of 
this congregation in the worship of 
God. And as it happens that the 
history of each of these church build- 



LOCATION OF LIN VESA Y y S BUSH. 



nigs comprises in some sense, a dis- 
tinct stage in the existence of the 
church, I shall seize upon that cir 
cumstance as affording a convenient 
system of division, and, separating 
the story into five chapters, shall 
group the events of each period 
around that one of the successive 
churches, which formed the centre at 
the time. We shall then have the 
series as follows : 

I. The Log Church, or the Found 
ing of the Settlement and early be- 
ginnings of Presbyterianism in this 



Region. 

II. The Church in the Fort, or 
: the story of the Massacre and De«o 

lation, at the time of the Revolution. 

III. The Post Revolutionary 
Church, or the Resuscitation, and 
early Efforts in behalf of Education. 

IV. The White Frame Church, or 
j the Progress of 60 years, down to 
; present days, under a long succession 
| of Pastors. 

Y. The Stone Church, or a Review 
of the Present Condition and Future 
I Prospects. 



CHAPTER THE FIRST. 
THE LOG CHURCH. 



The history of the Presbyterian 
Church at Cherry Valley begins with 
the arrival on this spot of a small 
band of settlers who migrated from 
Londonderry, New Hampshire, in the 
year 1741.* It has often been said 
that when the forefathers of this vil- 
lage came to settle, they brought 
their minister with them. It would 
be more exact to assert that their 
minister brought them. The cir- 
cumstances under which they came, 
were as follows. In 1738 the Lieut. 
Gov. of the Province, Geo. Clark, 
granted a patent of 8000 acres of 
land, described as lying "10 miles 
south of the Mohawk, and 52 west 
of Albany," to John Lindesay, Jacob 
Roseboom, Lendert Gansevoort and 
Sybrant Van Schaick. This land, and 
all that lay west of it, was then with- 
out inhabitant, except the roving ab 
origines. The nearest settlements 
were those on the Mohawk, and on 
Schoharie Creek, where a large body 
of Germans had taken up their homes 
as early as 1713. The whole region 

■* * Parker's Hist, of Londonderry, 
N. H., Boston 1861. pp. 98, 194. 



I was untouched by the hand of civil 
I ized man, to the south till one came 
| to the central part of Pennsylvania ; 
where Scotch Irish Presbyterian and 
I Germans, again, had already settled ; 
I and to the westward without limit, 
I saving that a few French Jesuits and 
I traders had formed scattered mis- 
! sions and trading posts at Detroit 
I and along the lakes. 

Mr. Lindesay purchased the shares 
I of his partners in 1739, and resolv- 
; ing to settle on the Patent, surveyed 
! it, chose a site for his own homestead 
i on a gentle knoll a little south of 
I where the village now stands, and in 
I the summer of 1740, took up his resi 
dence, giving it the name of Linde- 
say's Bush. He was from New York 
City, and while there to fetch his 
family, being himself a Scotchman, 
he formed a strong attachment for a 
young clergymen of the Presbyteri 
an Church, Rev. Samuel Dunlop, who 
seems to have been traveling through 
the provinces with a view of finding 
a residence and field of ministerial 
labor ; and whom he persuaded to 
accompany him and use his influence 



ORK OF THE SETTLERS. 



3 



with his countrymen in xe same 
church for the formation of a settle- 
ment. Mr. Dunlop went to London- 
dery, N. H. whereabouts a large com- 
munity of Presbyterians from the 
north of Ireland had been founded 
in 1718. He here persuaded several 
persons to make a fresh migration, 
and accompany him to the proposed 
Colony at Lindesay's Bush in the 
back hill country of New York Prov 
ince. Several families, among whom 
were David Eamsey, William Gallt, 
James Campbell, and William Dick- 
son, proceeded to N. Y., thence by 
the tedious sloop voyage up the Hud 
son to Albany, where friendly hands, 
interested in the settlement, met 
them with encouragement, took the 
rough road along the Mohawk, and 
thence climbed to where the depres- 
sion in the barrier of hills was point- 
ed out as the situation of Lindesay's 
Patent, where they arrived in 1741. 

They and their ancestors belonged 
to that colony of Scottish Dissenters 
who had settled in Ulster in the time 
of the Stewarts, under the strongest 
assurances that if they improved 
those fertile but sparsely inhabited 
lands they should be protected in 
the exercises of religious freedom 
and of all civil privileges. But when 
flourishing communities had arisen 
by their industry, the hand of tyranny 
deprived them of those rights which 
had been guaranteed. Religious tests 
were imposed on the condition of 
holding office ; and numbers who 
determined not to be subject to such 
oppressions, migrated to America, ex- 
pecting there to have freedom, even 
if they resigned everything else. 
They left rich fields in Ireland for 
barren rocks in New Hampshire ; and 
all "for the sake of a principle," as 
Wendell Philips would say. 

But while Mr. Dunlop was thus en 



gaged, Lindesay narrowly escaped 
being starved to death amid the rigors 
of the first recorded C. V. winter. He 
had taken his family and returned to 
pass the winter at the place. Little 
aware of the severity of the cold and 
depth of the snow in these parts, 
he did not anticipate being blockaded, 
and laid in too short a supply. Star 
vation began to stare them in the 
^face, when a friendly Indian travel- 
ing upon snow shoes chanced to visit 
them ; and by repeated journeys to 
the Mohawk villages, succeeded in 
bringing sufficient stores to last till 
the spring should open. The set 
tiers, welcomed by the proprietor 
and his family, pleased with the rich 
soil and beautiful situation, so like, 
yet so much more promising than 
the hills of their own native Scot- 
land, at once proceeded to select 
their farms, and clear the forests. — 
The thrifty growth of the" wild cher- 
ry, which mingled with the maples 
and beeches that clothed the hill- 
sides, suggested the name of Cherry 
Valley, which was adopted. 

A minister of the Gospel having 
been so principal an agent in the 
formation of the enterprise, it is not 
surprising that one of the first un 
dertakings should be the building of 
a house for the worship of God ; and 
a well-founded tradition declares that 
on the northern slope of the hill 
whereon Mr. Lindesay's house stood, 
(now Mr. Phelon's) a log church and 
school house combined was reared in 
the very first days of the occupancy. 
Mr. Dunlop was not only a minister, 
but a scholar, and an earnest friend 
of that thorough education which 
has been so inseparable a part in the 
history of Presbyterians in Scotland 
as well as all over the world. He 
was a graduate of Trinity College, 
Dublin, and became the first apostle 



4 



REV. SAMUEL DUNLOP. 



of liberal learning beyond the towns 
on the coast and the Hudson. He at 
once began the teaching of the clas- 
sics to the boys of the settlement, 
and to others who came from the 
scattering villages of the Germans on 
the Mohawk : and it is related of him 
that as he guided the ox team at the 
plough, the lads followed in the fresh 
earth of the furrow, scanning the 
daily "stent" of Homer or of Virgil. 
He was the educator of a number or 
men who became eminent and useful 
in the great struggle which, some 
years later, evoked the energies of 
the youthful nation. 

But he was far away from any with 
whom he could sympathize in the 
cares and labors of his sacred calling. 
Presbyterianism was very slow in 
taking root in this Province. The 
first sermon ever preached by a Pres 
byterian in New York, was so late as 
1708, and that was dealt with as a 
crime. The Rev. Francis MoKamie 
who with another had come to Mary- 
land as a Presbyterian Missionary 
was indicted and tried by the venial 
Governor for the offence of preach- 
ing without the Queen's License ; 
and though he secured his own ac- 
quittal, it shows how difficult this 
branch of the Christian Church 
found it to break through the close 
ranks of the Hollanders and Episco 
palians in New York. The first Pres 
byterian Church in N. Y. city, was 
founded in 1718, only 21 years prior 
to the time of which we are writing, 
and that was aided from without as 
a missionary enterprise. There were 
no English-speaking churches any 
where west of the Hudson^ and none 
with whom Mr. Dunlop could hold 
helpful communication. History re 
lates that the Presbyterians of Lon 
dondery till the year 1745 always re- 
ferred their eccelesiastical matters to 



the mother church in Ireland. But 
in 1745 they formed a Presbytery ; 
and the statement has come down 
that Mr. Dunlop in his desire to meet 
his brethren in the ministry, made 
the long journey to New Hampshire, 
and attended Presbytery. Though 
the records of that day both of the 
Presbytery and of this church are 
lost, there can be but little tloubt 
that the distant charge of Cherry 
Valley was one of the 12 churches, 
which are said to have formed that 
early Presbytery of Boston. At a 
later time a nearer point of support 
was found. The ancestors of De 
Witt Clinton* had settled at Little 
Britain in Ulster Co. near the Hud 
son in 1731. There grew up, before 
the Revolution what w r as called the 
Presbytery of Ulster ; and with that 
as their nearest neighbors, the church 
and its pastor seem to have been con 
nected. 

But his long trip to Presbytery 
was not the most distant journey 
this active man performed. He 
seems to have been capable of under- 
taking anything, when he had a rea- 
son. He was the first person in Cher 
ry Valley to make the voyage to 
Europe across the ocean. He was 
still unmarried, and it was now near 
seven years years since he had left 
his friends in Ireland. When he 
started for America it was to seek a 
home to which he might take the 
young girl who had promised to be 
his wife. But that engagement had 
prudently been made conditional ; for 
like those who seek their fortune on 
the Pacific coast in these days, it was 
not uncommon for the adventurer 
who staited for the new world to be 
lost by shipwreck, by pirates or by 
the Indians, and never be heard of 

* Campbell's Life of De Witt 
Clinton. 



EARLY GROWTH. BURIAL GROUND. 



after. It was too much to ask that 
the happiness of her whole life should 
hang on such chances ; and it was 
stipulated that if the young minister 
did not return within 7 years, the 
lady should be free. The time was 
almost out, and others had sued for 
her hand. To one of them she had 
at last yielded ; and while poor Dun- 
lop was beating off the stormy north- 
ern coast, panting to make a harbor, 
the preparations for the wedding 



were in progress. He arrived the 
day before the marriage, and the last 
day of the appointed term ; claimed 
his bride, was joyfully accepted, as 
one returned from the dead, and led 
her away to his wildwood home. — 
Poor lady ! could she have known 
the scene of bloody violence in which 
she was to yield up her life, she 
might well have hesitated to em- 
bark. 



CHAPTER THE SECOND. 



THE CHURCH IN THE FORT. 



Under so energetic a pastor the 
church could not fail to prosper, so 
far as the extent of the population 
allowed. Fresh settlers gradually 
came in, and 30 years of comparative 
prosperity rolled away, the little 
flock gathering each sabbath to lis- 
ten to the exhortations of their faith- 
ful spiritual guide. Prominent 
among those who joined them was 
Mr. John Wells. Mr. Lindsay hav 
ing become discouraged by the rig- 
ors of frontier life, for which he 
was ill fitted, Mr Wells purchased 
his place and became the owner of 
the earliest site of habitation in this 
part of Central New York. He was 
a man of uncommon good judgement 
and, so far as they needed justice 
acted as the magistrate of his neigh- 
bors. And, somewhat curiously, 
what he did in this regard for the 
little community by his plain and 
unimpeachible uprightness, his 
grand son has been doing for the 
whole country these many years, by 
means of a little volume, found in 
the library of almost every man who 
posseses a score of books, entitled 
"Well's Lawyer and U. S. Form 



Book." He was the grand-father 
of the learned lawyer, John Wells 
Esq. of N. Y. who in that comprehen- 
sive work has brought the intricacies 
of the law within the understanding 
of any man who knows how to read. 

Composed of 8 families in 1752, 
by 1765 they had increased to 40. 
As years went by death claimed his 
share from the number of the people 
and a spot was selected on a rise of 
ground near the southern edge of 
the village where they were laid 
away to rest ; and many a rude slab 
split from the limestone ridge hard 
by, still marks the spot where a 
pioneer lies wrapt in his long slum 
ber ; but whose name no hand skilled 
with the chisel was there to en- 
grave. With their growing num- 
bers better accommodations for 
their worship, than the old log 
house could afford, became necess- 
ary; and a frame church, the 2nd 
edifice, was erected, within the lim- 
its of the little quiet grave-yard. 

Like all the communities of our 
country, the constant struggles 
with the Indians or with the French, 
gave occasion to develope those war- 



6 



TORY SCHEME IN 1775. 



like qualities which were soon to be 
useful in the grandest effort ever 
made by any nation in the sacred 
cause of Freedom. Frequent ru- 
mors of danger required that the 
rifle should be shouldered by the 
head of the family, as he led his 
wife and children to the house of 
God ; and that the sentry should 
pace watchfully to and fro before 
the door, while the Psalm was lifted 
up from pious hearts within. 

Every man became in some sense 
a soldier; and even the sports of 
the children in the village street 
were those of marching and maneu- 
vering ; the keen eye of the savage, 
peering from the brushwood of the 
overlooking hill being at least once, 
deceived at the sight of their par 
ades into believing that real soldiers 
had ariived to garrison the place. — 
Service in the old French war pro 
moted several of the members of the 
church to military offices of some 
rank, whose regular commissions are 
still preserved; and scarce a man 
was there but had seen something of 
war. 

The stern occasion for the use of 
all their bravery and all their endur- 
ence had now come. The Presby- 
terians of Ireland never yet wasted 
too much love on the oppressive 
government of Great Britain. The 
fathers of some of them had been in 
the siege of Londonderry* and the 
battle of the Boyne, and we may be 
sure that they were Whigs. The 
Stamp Act affair reached them, and 
likewise did the proceedings in Bos 
ton Harbor. When the news came 
of what had been done at Concord 
and Lexington, (brought by a cour 
ier hastening west, and leaving the 
country all on fire with patriotic 

* "Siege and Hist, of Londonderry 
Ireland. J. Hempton, Dublin, 1861. 



fury as he passed,) there was hardly 
a man who did not resolve to take 
up the fight. Before this Cherry 
Valley had been included in a terri- 
torial division called palatine district 
of the county of Tryon. A standing 
Committee of Safety was formed for 
the district, with sub -committees in 
every hamlet. They were under the 
rule of the family of Johnstons, zeal - 
ous royalists, who formed the center 
of a nest of Tories at Johnstown. 
Little formidable in themselves, they 
were made so by reason of their en- 
tire control of the great Indian 
League of the Six Nations, who 
infested the forests of the whole 
region. The little church was the 
scene of the first meeting of the Com- 
mittee, which convened the people 
to denounce the attempts of the Tor- 
ies by a bold stroke to carry that 
part of the country over to the side of 
the oppressors. By subverting the 
Grand Jury and Judges assembled in 
the Spring of 1775, the actions of 
Congress had been denounced, and 
it was hoped thereby to array these 
settlements against the cause of In- 
dependence. The patriots in the 
church subscribed the following arti- 
cle of association in opposition to 
that attempt. 

"Whereas the Grand Jury of this 
County and a number of the magis- 
trates have issued a declaration de- 
claring their disapprobation of the 
opposition made by the Colonies to 
the oppressive and arbitrary acts of 
Parliment — the purport of which is 
evidently to entail Slavery on Amer- 
ica — and as the said Declaration 
may in some measure be looked upon 
as the sense of the County in general 
— if the same be passed over in sil- 
ence ; — we the subscribers, freehold- 
ers, Inhabitants of the said County, 
inspired with a sincere love for our 



SUNDAY IN 1776. 



7 



country and deeply interested in the 

common cause, Do solemnly de 

clare our fixed attachment and entire 
approbation of the proceedings of 
the Grand Continental Congress 
held at Pliila. last Fall, — and that 
we will strictly adhere to, and re- 
pose our confidence in the wisdom 
and integrity of the present Contin- 
entel Congress ; and that we will 
support the same to the extent of 
our power ; and that we will relig 
iously and inviolably observe the reg- 
ulations of that August Body." 

Thus our church, consecrated al- 
ready as a seat of piety became a 
Cradle of Liberty and a theater of 
Heroic Action. Surely not more 
adventurous was it to sign the Dec- 
laration of Independence in the old 
State House at Phila., than to write 
one's name on that paper in the 
rude frame church in the grave yard 
at Cherry Valley. The men of that day 
were all alike of one heart and one 
soul, in the cause of God and their 
country ; and they share in common 
the tribute of honor and glory in 
which that country, enlarged and 
compacted by a century of happiness 
and growth, this day unites. 

These Presbyterians were the 
more exasperated in that a large 
body of Roman Catholic Highlanders, 
their own apostate countrymen, as 
they regarded them, formed part 
of the array at Johnstown with which 
they were threatened. In a letter 
to the Committee at Albany, implor- 
ing help to save the frontier for 
freedom, they concluded as follows : 

"In a word, gentleman, it is our 
fixed resolution to support and car 
ry into execution everything recom 
mended by the Continental Con- 
gress, and to be free or die.^ 

It is for the secular historian to 
relate the details touching the p&r- 



ticipation of the people of Cherry 
Valley in the trying perils of the 
first years of the AVar ; their anxie 
ties and their fortitude ; and their 
heroism in the battle (that of Oris 
kany?) by which the insidious efforts 
of the traitorous party, to hand over 
this region to the enemy, was foiled. 
It is my part to point out how the 
church stood in the midst of the 
fight: and how the teachings of 
religion influenced them, even in mo- 
ments so different from those of 
pious meditation. A document, still 
extant, shows in what regard the 
Christian Sabbath was held by them 
in the grand Centennial of a hun- 
dred years ago. The question was not 
then whether Sunday is a day of 
holy rest, or a day of worldly pleas- 
ure. The following is a letter writ- 
ten from Cherry Valley, in reply to 
a citation to convene with the Com- 
mittee at a meeting appointed for a 
certain Sunday. It reminds one of 
the reply of the apostles, when they 
were forbidden to preach ; "Whether 
it be right in the sight of God to 
hearken unto you more than unto 
God, judge ye: For we cannot — 
"Cherry Valley June, 9th, 1775. 

"Sir : — We received yours of yes- 
terday relating to the meeting of the 
Committee on Sunday ; which sur- 
prised us not a little, inasmuch as it 
seemed not to be in any alarming cir- 
cumstance ; which if it was, we 
should readily attend. But as that 
does not appear to us to be the case* 
we think it is very improper ; for 
unless the necessity of the Commit- 
tee sitting superexceed the duties to 
be performed in attending the pub- 
lic worship of God, we think it 
ought to be put off till another day. 
And therefore we conclude not to 
give our attendance at this time, 
unless you adjourn the sitting 
of the Ccmmittee till Monday 
morniDg. And in that case we wffi 
give our attendence as early as yon 



8 



MEASURES OF DEFENCE. 



please. But otherwise we do not 
allow ourselves to be cut short of 
attending on the public worship ex- 
cept the case be so necessitous as to 
exceed sacrifice. We conclude with 
wishing success to the common 
Cause, and subscribe ourselves, the 
free born sons of Liberty. * 

John Moore, 

Samuel Clyde, 

Samuel Campbell. 
P. S. If you proceed to sit on the 
sabbath please to read this letter to 
the Committee which we think will 
suffic'ently assign our reason for not 
attending. 1 ' 

These were men who could fight 
as well as pray. Of the three, the first 
was disabled, but the second then a 
Major, and the third then a Lieut. 
Col., (with a brother of the latter, 
who was killed) were the only men 
from Cherry Valley in the battle of 
Oriskany, and, at the close of thai 
stubborn and bloody action, led off 
the remnant of the regiment of Col. 
Cox, who was killed. 

The settlement being exposed, ef- 
forts were early made so to secure its 
safety by the erection of a stockade 
at the house of Col. Campbell on 
the hill north of the village ; but in 
the spring of 1778 Gen. LaFayette 
was at Johnstown on military busi- 
ness, and on the representations of the 
people, he decided that this place 
should be selected as one of the 
points to be defended by a regular 
fort, and after repeated efforts a 
body of troops were sent to garri 
son it. The military officers being 
dissatisfied with the location of the 
existing work, it was resolved to 

remove to the knoll on which the j everything was done to lull it. 
burial ground and meeting house i At length, on the 11th of Novem- 
stood. The second edifice thus be- ber the storm burst with terrible fe- 



itself, and the work defended by 
four pieces of artillery. They form- 
ed a regiment, under the command of 
Col. Ickabod Alden of Danbury, 
Mass. a brave officer, but one too 
unused to the subtle nature of Indian 
warfare for such a post. 

The Spring and Summer of 1778 
passed away filled with rumors of 
Indian movements, to which the au- 
thorities paid only too little heed. — 
There was a gathering place of the 
savages at the lory settlement, ef- 
fected by the Johnstons at, Unadilla, 
and here Brant, the Indian chief, and 
Butler, the Tory leader, devised their 
schemes of rapine. In the summer 
they devastated the Valley of Wy- 
oming; an event which created the 
greatest alarm in a settlement from 
which almost every able bodied citi- 
zen had alreidy departed, with his 
gun on his shoulder, to take part in 
the more important fields of action. 
A nearer warning was the burning of 
the feeble settlement of Springfield, 
the same summer. Men like Col. 
Clyde, Col. Campbeli, and Capt. 
McKean, who would have given 
the garrison the best directions, vvvre 
all then occupied on distant fields. 
A petition to the Congress of N. 
Y., states that "no less than 33 have 
turned out for immediate t-ervice 
and the good of their country." — 
The officers of the garrison were dis- 
tributed in the different houses; and 
as the winter approached, the entrea- 
ties ot the people, to be allowed to 
take refuge in the fort were refused, 
Thus, instead of arousing vigilance 



came the church in the fort. 

Here the troops were quartered, to 
the number of several hundred, the 
head-quarters being in the building 



rocity. In this elevated region the 
winter sets in with early and Cana- 
dian severity. It was a raw and 
sleety morning with several inches of 



MASSACRE OF 1778. 



9 



snow covering the ground, when the 
people of the place were roused in 
the gray dawn by the lurid flames 
which shot up from burning houses 
and barns, and by the wild shrieks 
of women and children, writhing un- 
der the scalping knife of the pitiless 
savage. A scouting party, too tardi- 
ly sent out down the valley, had been 
surprised and slain ; and the foe had 
advanced to the very verge of the 
settlement undiscovered. They en- 
camped 500 savages, and 200 tory 
riflemen, on the evening of the 10th, 
in the woods which covered the hill 
southwest of the village. Early in 
the morning of the 11th, they spread 
themselves in every direction, keep- 
ing concealed behind the hills, and 
just at day-break fell upon the scat 
tered and helpless families with a 
sudden and ferocious onset that par- 
alyzed all resistance. Every house 
had its horde of blood thirsty be- 
seigers. Col. Allen was at the house 
of Mr. Wells, but a few rods from 
the fort. His guard was cut down, 
the entire family of eleven persons, 
were massacred, saving one son who 
was absent, and the Colonel himself 
felled by the tomahawk of Brant as 
he was fleeing to regain the post 
which he should never have deserted. 

I cannot pause to recite the hor- 
rors of that awful day ; the most 
memorable and sorrowful in the his- 
tory of this old church. They are 
given in a better mariner than I can 
do in those Annals which record the 
entire history of this region during 
those early years.* But I must at 
least narrate the sorrows which fell 
on the now venerable pastor, and the 
tragic fate of the wife, who as a 
bride had followed him across the 
ocean to share the toils, and confront 

* Annals of Try on Co., by Wm. 
W. Campbell, N. Y. Harpers, 1831. 



the perils of a life in the wilds of 
this distant continent. 

Mr. Dunlop had received a tract of 
several hundred acres of land beau- 
tifully situated at the western limit 
of the intervale which sweeps to the 
foot of the hill in that direction. — 
Here, on the bank of a limpid stream 
not far from the spot where it falls 
in a pretty cascade over a ledge of 
rocks, he established his home and 
planted an orchard. In the fiendish 
attack his wife was ruthlessly mur- 
dered, before either resistance or en 
treaty could be interposed. The ap- 
ple tree was long shown into which 
her mangled arm, dissevered from 
her body, was hurled by the rude 
barbarity of her murderer. He him- 
self was spared, only that he might 
realize the horrors of his loss and be- 
hold the utter desolation of the field 
of his holy exertions. A chief called 
Little Aaron interposed and saved his 
life and that of his daughter, the only 
other member of his family with him ; 
another daughter being the wife of 
the Mr. Wells already mentioned and 
suffering death in the same massacre. 
The pastor's house was razed to the 
ground ; his library, including proba- 
bly the records of the church, de- 
stroyed, and himself led away a pris 
oner, half clothed and quaking with 
cold and alarm. His years and posi- 
tion seem to have prevailed to secure 
his release in a few days ; he reached 
New York, ruined and broken, and 
there sank and died beneath the 
double weight of age and suffering, 
about a year subsequent to these 
events. 

Ought not some spot on the walls 
of this church bear a tablet, record- 
ing in enduring letters, the charac- 
ter, labors and sufferings, of this first 
pastor of Cherry Valley. About for 
ty in all were slain, and the prisoners 



10 



THE CHURCH DESOLATED. 



to about the same number were led, 
a pitiable company, almost destitute 
of clothing, and in utter despair, by 
a long and circuitous route of two or 
three hundred miles to the south and 
west, and scattered by way of Niag 
ara among the Indians in Canada. — 
It was winter, and their sufferings 
were intense. Some were aged wo 
men, and being so infirm that they 
could not keep up, were barbarously 
killed and their scalps added to the 
ornaments at the belts of the war- 
riors. Others were little children, 
who, when recovered some years la- 
ter by exchange, had forgotten to 
lisp their native tongue, and had be 
come transformed into Indians like 
their captors. One of them, a child 
of four years old at the time, survi- 
ved till a recent year, retaining a viv- 
id recollection of those early adven- 
tures, and died at the age of ninety- 
seven. This "last prisoner of the 
Revolution" was buried near the spot 
where lies the body of Col. Alden, 
and where also two or three slabs 
record the names of others as having 
been "barbarously murdered by the 
savages on the memorable 11th day 
of November, 1778." 

On the day following the massacre 
a reinforcement arrived, too late to 
do more than gather the dead. With 
the few exceptions referred to, they 
were laid together in one great trench 
in the grave yard, in a spot that is 
still pointed out. The earth was 
cast over them, and they were left to 
moulder to dust. The settlement 
was completely blotted out. The 
fort was dismantled, and its garrison 
withdrawn. The sapling maple sup- 
planted the corn, and the underbrush 
of the forest crept up to cover again 
the fields that had been gained to 
cultivation from the wild ownership 



of nature. While, for six years yet, 
the red surges of war roared along 
the coast, the sounds alike of indus 
try and of strife were here succeed- 
ed by a pensive silence, broken only 
by the sad note of the whip-poor-will 
or the crack of the Indian's rifle. — 
For a while the little church in the 
Fort still stood as a pathetic monu- 
ment in the midst of this melancholy 
scene ; but a year or two later a par- 
ty of marauders consigned it to the 
flames, leaving nothing but the 
charred foundation, and the gray and 
mossy, nameless headstones over the 
dead, to indicate the spot where the 
church of Cherry Valley had been. 

I have no time, nor is it the pur- 
pose of this production, to inculcate 
the lessons which this tragical his 
tory suggests. With the millions of 
our great and prosperous country we 
celebrate amid every circumstance of 
joy and pride the hundredth year of 
Independence since that great strug 
gle began. In the midst of our ex- 
ultation, let us not forget gratitude, 
and that we may not, it is well to re 
call sacrifices and the heroism of 
those trying times. In the history 
| of our church as connected with that 
| of the nation, we feel that we have a 
I legacy more valuable to be transmit- 
ted to our children, than any of the 
physical advantages our amazing 
prosperity has conferred upon us. — 
Let us teach them to remember these 
things ; and to love the virtues of 
which they are so impressive an ex 
ample. The most precious treasure, 
of a people is the memory of lofty 
achievements and heroic sacrifice. — 
The best guarantee that patriotism 
will flourish and liberty be preserved 
to our country is, that such things as 
these are not forgotten. 



THE P XT-RE VOL UTIONAR Y C1IUR CH 11 



CHAPTER THE THIRD. 



THE POST-REVOLUTIONARY CHURCH. 



The principal source from which 
the following portions of this recital 
are drawn is an exceedingly interest- 
ing M S. volume, inscribed, in a 
beautiful hand resembling copper- 
plate, "The Records of the Bresby- 
terian Church and Congregation in 
Cherry Valley, Anno Domini, 1785. " 
Besides this which is chiefly a chron 
icle of the temporalities, the Records 
of the Session are extant in four vol 
umes, commencing in 1804. 

The thread of the history is ab- 
ruptly resumed with the following 
quaint and touching entry upon the 
first page of the old Record Book. 

"We the Ancient Inhabitants of 
Cherry Valley, in the County of 
Montgomery, and State of New T York 
having Returned from Exile finding 
ourselves destitute of our Church of- 1 
ficers viz., Deacons and Elders. In j 
consequence of our difficulties, and 
other congregations, in Similar Cir- 1 
cumstances, our legislature thought j 
proper to pass a Law for the Relief 
of those (viz, An act to encoporate 
all Religious Societies passed April 
the Sixth, One Thousand Seven Hun 
dred and Eighty -four). In compli 
ance of said act we proceeded as 
follows : — 

ADVERTISEMENT. 

At a meeting of a Respectable 
Number of the Old Inhabitants of 
Cherry Valley, it was agreed upon 
that an Advertisement be set up to 
give notice to all the former Inhabi- 
tants that are Returned to their Re 
spective Habitations to meet in the 
Meeting House yard on Tuesday the 
Fifth Day of April Next at Ten 
O'clock before Noon, then and there 
to choose Trustees who shall be a 
Body corporate for the purpose of 
taking care of the Temporalities of 
their Respective Presbyterian Con- 



gregation agreeable to an act, (etc..) 

Cherry Valley, March 19, 1785. 
Samuel Clyde, Justice of the Peace." 

Thus with neither minister, nor 
missionary, nor any of those special- 
ly qualified persons at hand who are 
generally the prime movers in relig- 
ious undertakings, not even a deacon 
or elder, the forlorn remnant of the 
people of Cherry Valley who had 
escaped the ravages of war and of 
the massacre, true to their pious 
training, out of their desire to wor- 
ship God, and under the leadership 
of the civil magistrate, assume that 
right to form themselves into a 
church, which is inherent in Chris 
tians in such circumstances, without 
regard to precedent or ecclesiastical 
succession. The war which so se 
verely tried the colonies, received its 
finishing stroke in the surrender of 
Cornwallis at Yorktown in October 
1781 ; but it was not till late in 1783 
that the armies were disbanded, a 
treaty with Great Britain having 
been signed in September that year. 
For a space the energies of the young 
nation seemed paralyzed with its ef- 
forts, and with the vision of its suc- 
cess. It was not till the second year 
| after this that the survivors of Cher 
I ry Valley came to search amid the 
! thicket of young vegetation for the 
! bounder ies of their farms and the 
| relics of their homes. They met in- 
| formally, as we have seen, to take 
| measures for the rehabilitation of 
| their church, and the advertisement 
was set up in March 1795. 
j There is something extremely im 
j pressive in the thought of that as- 
semblage of returned "exiles" in the 



12 



A PICTURE. VISIT OF WASHINGTON. 



meeting house yard, deliberating, in 
the cold March air, amid the black- 
ened ruins of their sanctuary, and 
the graves of their dead, upon the 
prospects of rebuilding the house of 
God. The artist, seeking to perpet 
uate upon canvass the spirit of that 
earnest period, could scarcely find a 
more fitting subject for his pencil. — 
Great drifts of snow there frequent- 
ly still cover the ground at that sea- 
son ; but, if otherwise, we may im 
agine the unpromising features of 
the landscape which formed the 
ground of the picture ; the arching 
stems of the raspberry making a 
tangle over the low gravestones, 
through which it was difficult to 
walk ; the trees bare of leaves ; the 
nearer hills lonely and grey, save 
where patches of the hemlock varied 
the tone with touches of blackness ; 
and the distant summits far down 
the valley fading to shades of cold, 
steel blue under the cloudy and 
threatening sky. The costumes of the 
figures, the brown doublet or heavily- 
caped greatcoat of gray ; the blue 
Continental uniform, and rough 
hunters legging of leather ; would 
give diversity to the group ; but 
what a master hand must not it be, 
that could render the firm and rug- 
ged lines in the faces of the men ! 

The names of 21 electors are re- 
corded, who elected three Trustees, 
Samuel Clyde, John Campbell Jr,. 
and James Willson. The last accom- 
panied Lindesay in 1739 when he 
came to locate his patent, and seems 
to have been the surveyor. He pur- 
chased a farm in 1745, and the old 
parchment deed describes him as the 
High Sheriff of Albany County, which 
at that earliest period extended over 
this district. The returning officers 
were Col. Campbell and Win. Dick- 
son, the latter the ancestor of Rev- 



Cyrus Dickson of New York. 

In the summer of 1784 the place 
was honored by the advent of a par 
ty of highly distinguished visitors. 
A few families had already begun to 
rebuild, when Gen. Washington, who 
was on a tour of observation through 
the frontier districts, in company 
with Gen. Geo. Clinton, (who had 
some connections here) and several 
others, stopped at the place, to view 
the scene of the massacre, and call 
upon those who had served as officers 
in the war. 

The corporate body was kept up 
from this time onward, but in the first 
years the church was left to care for 
itself without the assistance of a reg- 
ular minister ; worship being main- 
tained with such temporary help as 
could from time to time be procured 
in a region so isolated. By 1790 a 
Meeting House had been erected, but 
from subsequent records the post- 
revolutionary church seems for many 
years to have been without regular 
furniture, and in the barest possible 
condition. In 1796, the names of 
54 others are entered as "members 
of the first Presbyterian Congrega- 
tion." Among these is that of Rev. 
Solomon Spaulding, a man whose lit- 
erary labors subsequently became an 
instrument in supporting the most 
scandalous imposture our county has 
produced. We read in Scripture of 
an old prophet at Bethel, who pre- 
ferred dwelling among the 10 tribes 
to ministering to the faithful people, 
and whose preference therein ulti- 
mately led to deplorable mischief. — 
Mr. Spaulding doubtless anticipated 
no such results, but having aban- 
doned the ministry, he devoted his 
leisure to some unprofitable specula- 
tions about those same lost Tribes 
of Israel. On this subject he wrote 
a romance, detailing an imaginary 



13 



history, and identifying them with 
the Aborigines of this Continent, 
Avhom he describes as coming to this 
country by a long journey through var- 
ious lands from Jerusalem, under two 
leaders, Nephi and Lehi, and giving 
rise to the traces of art and civiliza- 
tion which exist in the mounds and 
other relics which still are so per-, 
plexing a problem to scholars. The 
MS. of this work being sent to a 
printing office, where its absurdity 
caused it to be refused, it was copied 
by one Eigdon and thence came in- 
to the hands of Joseph Smith, the 
pretended prophet of the "Latter 
Day Saint," became the source of 
the pretended revelations of the 
"Golden Leaves," and now survives, 
with a few additions from Scripture, 
as the Book of Mormon. 

Somewhere before this time an en 
ergetic effort was made in behalf of I 
education, and a handsome building 
was erected for an Academy, which 
long exerted the happiest influence on 
the culture of the neighborhood, and 
sent out numbers ot men who became 
prominent throughout the country. 
Mr. Spaulding appears to have taught 
in this institution, and, doubtless, he 
occasionally preached in the church, 
and baptised the children. But in 
this year, both church and school 
were to secure the services of a man 
whose labors in the latter soon raised 
it to great efficiency, and who him- 
self rapidly rose to eminence as an 
eloquent divine, and efficient support- 
er of education. An entry in the 
Record, August 15, 1796, states that 
the question "whether this Society 
will give the Rev. Mr. Eliphalet Nott 
a call to settle as our minister," was 
carried in the affirmative, and a sub 
scription opened to raise money for 
his support. 

Morse's Geography, as quoted in 



Dobsoris Encyclopedia, gives a short 
account of Cherry Valley which af- 
fords an idea of the size and conse- 
quence of the place at that time. — 
"It contains about 31 houses and a 
Presbyterian Church. There is an 
Academy here which contained in 
1796, 50 or 60 scholars. It is a spa 
cious building 60 feet by 40. The 
township is very large, and lies along 
the east side of Otsego Lake and its 
outlet to Adiquatauqis Creek. By 
the state census of 1796 it appears 
that 629 of its inhabitants are elec- 
tors. This settlement suffered se 
verely from the Indians in the late 
war.'' The whole population was 
perhaps near 3000, but the limits 
then seem to have extended over 
what were called "the four Worces- 
ter towns." 

Dr. Nott came from Connecticut, 
in the summer of 1795, as a licentiate 
missionary to these parts ; being then 
at the age of 21 and recently mar 
ried ; reaching the place by the great 
turnpike from Albany, by which this 
country was soon to be opened up to 
rapid development, but which was 
then only recently cut through, and 
passable only on horseback. He him 
self describes the pleasing emotions 
with which he gazed down upon the 
smiling valley with its nestling vil- 
lage and waving cultivated fields, af 
ter the rough, uninhabited country 
which intervened for long distances 
between it and the more easterly set 
tlements.* Filled with melancholy 
thoughts at his lonely situation in a 
region so distant and where he sup- 
posed all would be entire strangers, 
he stopped at a house to ask for some 
refreshment, when to his surprise he 
was greeted by name. It was an old 
Connecticut acquaintance, Mr. Ozias 
Waldo, who received him most cor- 

* Memoirs of Dr. Nott. 



14 



Ml NOTTS MINISTRY. 



dially, and at once urgently besought j trines, it seemed unwise and unchris- 
that he would tarry and take charge I tian to encourage them in maintain- 
of the church, of which himself long ! ing a profitless division of their 
after continued an active and useful 
member. Engagements further on 
required Mr. Nott's attention ; but 
the call was made out, and after some 
hesitation he returned and took up 
his labors as both preacher in the 
church, and teacher in the Academy, 
which was soon thronged with pupils. 
In his letter of acceptance, a char- 
acteristic document recorded in his 
own hand, he dwells on the "distanc 
from ministerial assistance and ad 
vice" as making him hesitate, but 
speaks of the prevalence of ^fideli- 
ty and the "destitute and broken 
state" of the society, which he calls 
a "solitary zion," not as deterring, 
but as the reasons for not "desert- 
ing' 1 it. 

A proposal that the call should re 
quire Mr. Nott to "put himself un- 
der the direction and inspection of 
the Presbytery of this State," seems 
to have led to the appointment of 
Mr. Spaulding to present the call to 
Presbytery ; but apparently nothing 
was done, for the young preacher 
was not ordained till he became pas- 
tor at Albany. He himself, however 
in one of his letters, relates the cir- 
cumstances under which he was led 
to become a Presbyterian. On his 
way to the West he stopped at Sche 
nectady, and going into a prayer 
meeting, was asked to preach by Dr. 
John Blair Smith, the president of 
Union College. In a long conversa- 
tion afterwards he explained the ob- 
ject of his journey, which was as a 
missionary of the Congregational 
Church. But he was deeply impressed 
with the views of his host, that as 
the New England people and the 
Presbyterians in the new region were 
so much in accord on points of doc 



strength, that they ought to be in- 
duced to unite, and join efforts in 
the Master's cause. These argu- 
ments gave a new direction to the 
young man's life ; he abandoned con 
gregationalism, and lent his influence 
to form that "plan of Union," which 
led to the buildiug up of so many 
large and prosperous churches. — 
There is no record of the results of 
his labors as the supply of the little 
congregation, and his stay extended 
to but two years. But he here first 
established his household, made ties 
of friendship which lasted as long as 
his extended life, and formed that at- 
tachment for the place which caused 
it ever to dwell in his memory among 
his most pleasing associations. He 
loved to revisit the beautiful valley 
which had been the scene of his early 
endeavors, and in his old age he re- 
solved plans for giving it lasting 
benefit by aiding in the establishment 
of its ancient Academy on the basis 
of a substantial endowment. 

In 1798 his young wife was con 
veyed for her health to Ballston 
Springs, whose waters were already 
becoming famous. There is some ob 
scui ity in the accounts, but it appears 
to have been at this time that he tar- 
ried at Schenectady, being on his way 
to see his wife, and to attend a meet 
ing of the Piesbytery of Albany at 
Salem, when Dr. Smith, after hearing 
him preach, urged him to return by 
way of Albany, and occupy the pulpit 
of the Presbyterian Church there, 
which was then vacant. Whether he 
was then already a member of Presby- 
tery, as his Memoirs state; (in which 
case we should expect that he would 
have been ordained and installed, on 
being received by it. over his Cherry 



A PRIM ATI VE MEETING HOUSE. 



15 



Valley charge,) or whether he made 
this journey for the purpose of con | 
necting himself with the Presbytery ; 1 
with installation then in view ; is not 
clear. At all events the journey lost 
him to Cherry Valley ; he preached 
at Albany, was immediately called to 
that important charge, and a few j 
years later had become tamous among j 
the clergymen of the country. In ! 
1804 he became President of Union 
College, where for an extended peri- 
od he filled that sphere of eminence 
and usefulness whose events are a 
part of the history of our progress 
during the past century. 

By the loss of its minister the lit 
tie church was again left to its own 
meagre resources in its difficult strug- 
gle, and several years elapsed before 
it secured the services of a regular 
pastor. Trustees were regularly 
elected each year, but no minister is 
mentioned, except Mr. Spaulding, till 
1802, when Eev Thos. Kirby Kirkham 
was employed for at least one year ? 
one quarter of his time to be de 
voted to Middlefield. In Dr. Nott's 
time efforts had been made to furnish 
the church, and the proposal started 
to erect a better one. It seems to 
have been greatly needed, for so un- 
attractive was its appearance that it 
is related that a traveller on passing 
ft exclaimed, that he had many times 
seen the house of God, but never be- 
fore had he beheld the Lord's Barn ! 
It stood on the site of the previous 
one, in the giave yard, a plain build 
ing 50 ft. square, without steeple or 
ornament. Within was a gallery on 
three sides, and on the fourth was a 
round barrel pulpit mounted on a 
post ; the pews being of the high- 
backed, square, uncomfortable pat- 
tern usual at the period, neither pad 
ded nor cushioned. For many years 
there was neither chimney nor stove, 



any more than the old Covenanters 
had when they met in Conventicle on 
the Scotch hillsides. The feeble 
warmth of the foot stoves carried by 
the women barely sufficed to keep the 
congregation from freezing as they 
listened to Dr. Nott's young and fer- 
vid oratory in the keen air of winter. 
The writer has more than once 
preached in Cherry Valley when the 
thermometer outside was at 18 or 20 
degrees below zero ; and when it was 
at that stage inside, what must not 
have been the devotion that could 
keep a congregation together ! We 
do not wonder at finding a record 
that there should be but one service 
at that season of the year. Mr. 
Kirkham's labors seem to have led to 
little fruit and he appears not to 
have been re-engaged. 

We have seen that the church was 
organized hitherto in that somewhat 
informal manner which circumstances 
permitted. A body of Christians 
desiring to worship God they had 
builded a church, and employed min 
isters to maintain the ordinances so 
far as they could be obtained. They 
evidently endeavored to regain that 
presbyterial recognition which they 
had before the war ; but this their 
remoteness prevented, or their insig 
nificance failed to evoke. Dr. Nott 
being without ordination prevented 
the institution of new elders ; though 
one or two who had been such in the 
old church, are believed to have been 
on the ground. Old "deacon" John 
Moore had been a chaplain in the 
first provincial Congress of New 
York, in 1775, of which he was a 
member. With such facts, it would 
seem an absurd piece of puncti- 
liousness to assert, on account of 
some unavoidable defects, that they 
were not a church. An army does 
not cease to be an army because its 



16 



INNOVATIONS. 



officers have fallen. They had the 
fact that they were a Christian body 
united for worship ; they had set up 
the house of God sixty years before. 
Old Dominie Dunlop had gone hun- 
dreds of miles to Presbytery; as 
soon as they returned from exile, be- 
fore their own houses were rebuilt, 
they had solemnly met in the grave 
yard to rehabilitate the sanctuary. — 
The church members were there, and 
they called themselves a "Presbyter- 
ian Church and Congregation." They 
had had one pastor, and had employ- 
ed at least two other preachers of 
the gospel. No temporary neglects 
or flaws in the strict routine of ec- 
clesiastical order could destroy the 
fact that they were a Church of Christ 
and a Presbyterian Church. But des- 
pite all this a precisian now appears 
who swept it all aside, and, seeming- 
ly on his own responsibility took it 
in hand forsooth to give it existence, 
and at the same time to impress up- 
on it a new character, and introduce 
usages entirely foreign to its wont. 
In Jan. 1804 Rev. Isaac Lewis came 
from Cooperstown, then a small place 
not long settled, and finding the 
church without a pastor or active of- 
ficers, (though the members still held 
together, and meetings for prayer 
were kept up weekly,) not only lent 
his assistance to ordain elders in the 
church, but treated it as if it were 
not in existence ; as the record runs 
in the Session Book, ''organized into 
a church" a certain number, only 14 
in all, whose names are recorded. — 
Mr. Lewis the author of this, doubt 
less well meant, but rather sweeping 
and gratuitous measure, w r as a Pres- 
byterian, but seems to have been 
reared under Congregational usages, 
and it was under his influence and 
at this time that the church w T as led 
to impose upon itself a long and 



dogmatical "Confession of Faith" 
and "Covenant" after the Congrega- 
tional fashion ; apparently ignorant, 
or else forgetful, that the proper and 
only authorized standards of the 
Presbyterian Church are those of the 
Westminster Assembly, adopted by 
General Assembly in 1788. Half a 
dozen years later, Mr. Cooley, better 
acquainted with Presbyterian ways, 
brought this anomaly in the practice 
of the church to the notice of Ses 
sion, and appended a note to the rec- 
ord, stating that "the session think 
it not proper to require it of mem 
bers ; inasmuch as the printed con - 
fession of the Presbyterian Church, 
(i. e. the Westminster) clearly and 
fully express all articles of faith and 
practice derived from the word of 
God." (1811) Notwithstanding this 
repudiation, some later pastors re 
vived the use of them ; and in 1854 
they were printed in pamphlet form. 
In Aug. 1873 they were again for- 
mally set aside by Session, and the 
action, with the reasons for it, enter- 
ed upon the minutes. 

The effort secured little fruit be- 
yond amending the organization and 
the enrollment of the 14 members. 
There are evident traces that the in- 
novation was displeasing to the old 
members, who had always seen be- 
lievers added to the church on the 
simple terms of repentance towards 
God and faith in the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and under the old Westmin- 
ster symbols, liberally construed, and 
w T ith the largest respect for the right 
of private judgment, as was usual in 
the Scotch Church. Not till three 
years later, did any of the old stock 
allow their names to be entered, 
when four only were received, not on 
their subscribing to the covenant, 
but on the ground that they had 
been members in Mr. Dunlop 's time ; 



17 



TWO EARLY PASTORATES. 



while many others remained out al- 
together, as we infer from the ab 
sence of so many of the old names, 
especially of the men, from the roll.* 
A long narrative, under date 1806, 
records the goodness and mercy of 
God in answering the prayers of the 
church for an ^ambassador to watch ! 
over the nock of Christ and warn j 
sinners to Repentance," by the arriv 
al of Rev. Geo. Hall, who was called 
in February on a salary of $500. — 
The old church was now so out of j 
repair as to be dangerous to health 
in winter, and it was proposed that | 
service be h^.d in "the South room 
of the Academy, excepting on every 
fifth Sabbath that the Episcopalians 
expect their pastor to preach there," 
which is the first notice of a wor 
shipping body of Episcopalians 
among us. The pastor referred to 
was doubtless the widely useful Fath- 
er Nash, the pioneer of Episcopacy 
in these parts. The old meeting 
house told on Mr. Halls health se- 
verely, and he resigned in 1807. — 
The village was gradually increasing 
in consequence as well as influence. 
The village received a charter June 
8th, 1812. Luther Rich, a name of- 
ten seen on the records, was in 1801 
elected to the Constitutional Conven- 
tion, of which Aaron Burr was presi- 



* I have since received from Pres. PoUer 
the following facts from the presbyterial 
records in the safe at Union College. "The 
Church at Cherry Valley was on the roll of 
Albany presbytery, in the year of its foun- 
dation, 1790 ; and the date of its foundation, 
1741, is mentioned. " It was probably set off 
from Londonderry or Ulster when the Al- 
bany presbytery was formed ; as it seems the 
names : of Samuel Dunlop and Solomon 
Spaulding appear in connection with it on 
gome records of an earlier date than the latter. 
Mr. Nott connected himself with the presby- 
tery of Albany, October 31, 1791 ; having 
been licensed by the N. Londonderry As- 
sociation. Jahuarv 26, 1796. 



dent, as was Joseph Clyde in that of 
1821. Rev. Andrew Oliver was then 
pastor at Springfield, and appears to 
have lent his service to our church 
from time to time during the three 
years before a pastor was again settled. 
In Mr. Notts day, the Springfield 
Church is spoken of as applying for 
his ministrations for half the time, 
an overture which was refused, but 
which shows that there was a church 
there as early as 1797. In 1800 Rev. 
Jedidiah Bushnell, a missionary, vis 
ited the place, and a revival broke 
out which extended to several other 
towns and seventeen persons were 
added to the church. Mr. Oliver be- 
came their pastor in 1806. The Bap- 
tists had formed a church in Spring- 
field in 1797, under elder Wm. Fur- 
man, which flourished. 

Rev. Jesse Townsend preached in 
the summer of 1810 ; but at the 
close of that season was to begin the 
first extended pastorate of this peri 
od of the old church. It was that 
of Rev. Eli F. Cooley, L. L. D. a well 
educated, prudent, and able man, who 
had graduated at Princetown in 1806, 
and having concluded the required 
three years of theological study 
came as a licentiate of the Presbytery 
of New Brunswick, and began to 
preach in Oct., having been called in 
Aug. An earnest effort was made to 
secure his services, and $600 having 
been raised on his salary, he deter 
mined upon a permanent settlement, 
and was installed by the Presbytery 
of Oneida in February following. — 
(Presbytery of Oneida). The four- 
teen members had, in the six years 
till he came, risen to thirty- seven, but 
when he retired in 1820 the list had 
swelled to two hundred and twenty- 
six, the best evidence boih of the 
prosperity of the place, and the effi- 
ciency of his labors. But notwith- 



A STATELY EPITAPH. 



standing this he was compelled to A gratifying proof of Dr. Cooley's 
resign, March 1820, on account of the life long attachment to this place was 
inadequate support. He went to incidentally given, fifty years after 
Middletown Point, N. J., whence he he left, at the time the present pas- 
afterwards removed to Trenton First ; tor received his call. When it reach- 
Church, which subsequently became | ed him at Morrisville, Pa., he at once 
the Ewing Church, and where he la- went to Dr. Hall of Trenton, who 
bored till his death at an advanced \ was his kind adviser, and said, "Doc- 
age in 1860. While here Mr. Cool tor, I have got a call." "Have you?" 
ey lost his youthful wife, Hannah, sa id he, "and where are you called 
"daughter of Col. Scudder, Prince- to V ' "To Cherry Valley, N. Y." 
town, N. J.," a lovely lady, to whom "Cherry Valley," exclaimed he, 
her female friends here erected a I "why, I have heard of that place- 
neat altar tomb, the closing sentence j Old Dr. Cooley was there ; and he 
of which seems as apt a specimen of I always use to say that Cherry Valley 
the capabilities of English words, as was a little Paradise !" And truly 
I recollect having met in my acquain- to most of those who have gone from 
tance with the language. hence, these hills do seem a little 

-"Whom it were unpardonable to lay nearer heaven than any other spot 
down in silence, but ot whom it is difficult * r 

to speak with justice ; for her true charac- of earth, 
ter will look like flattery, and the least abate- j 
ment of it would be an injury to her mem- j 
ory. "— 



CHAPTER THE FOURTH. 
THE WHITE FRAME CHURCH. 

The church had now passed the! the very westernmost verge of civil- 
period of recovery from her feeble ization, and that at the time of which 
infancy, and was entering upon a | we are writing the mere foundations 
stage of rapid developement. It was j of so much subsequent greatness 
a time when the almost countless were scarcely more than laid. Syra- 
hosts of immigration from New Eng- ! cuse, Rochester, Buffalo, Cleveland 
land to the west, now fully under j and the rest, were gathering their 
way, poured in a continuous stream j young energies, and drawing their 
into Cherry Valley, on her now com ! accessions of strength chiefly by this 
pleted turnpike ; and there diverged \ famous highway. The picturesque 
in two lines, the one to the south- 1 emigrant trains in an incessant 
west, to the region of Chenango ; the i line toiled through the mud of 
other northwest to Rome and Utica, j spring or the dust of summer, on 
and onward. The influx of business j their way to the lake side or prairie ; 
and population must have been very j and the heavily loaded coaches, each 
rapid. Great cities, nay a vast em- drawn by four or six magnificent 
pire, was building up to the west j horses, bowled gaily along, the guard 
ward. It is hard to realize that only i waking the echoes with his loud horn, 
eighty years ago this village was on | as the splendid vehicle dashed up to 



PR OMINEN T MEN. 



19 



the tavern door. In the return di- 
rection there passed an unending 
current of great waggons conveying 
the wealth of the fresh virgin soil to 
the eager markets of the east. Great 
droves of cattle raised clouds of dust, 
and filled the air with their noise. — 
The population along the road were 
taxed to their utmost to lodge this 
invading multitude of panting trav- 
ellers, and almost every house became 
an inn, while along the road they 
were scattered at almost every mile. 
So old established a place was 
thought advantageous as a field of 
enterprise by many individuals of 
talent in the different professions ; 
the society improved ; and Cherry 
Valley ere long became widely known 
for the number of able men and ele- 
gant women who there resided. Stu- 
dents in numbers sought the offices 
of her lawyers and physicians for 
study in those pursuits : and afford- 
ed a succession of excellent teachers 
for her Academy. 

Among the more prominent men 
whose names are associated with the 
church at this period and the years 
succeeding were, as Trustees, Lester 
Holt, Levi Beardsley, James Brack- 
ett, Isaac Seelye, and Jabez D. Ham- 
mond, most of whom were lawyers 
of great ability. The last mentioned 
was an author of considerable merit. 
His "Political History of the State 
of New York," and "Life and Times 
of Silas "Wright," are works of stand- 
ard authority and extremely valuable 
contributions to historical literature. 
He was elected to the XIV Congress, 
(1815-18). Mr, Beardsley published 
the "Reminiscences of Otsego,'' a 
gossippy and readable book. But 
the most widely known were Dr. 
Joseph White and Alvin Stewart ; 
the former (who tho' an Episcopalian, 
co-operated with the church for some 



time), as a physician of remarkable 
capacity whose practice embraced an 
ar^a of very great extent ; the latter 
as a radical reformer, and man of 
original genius and great wit, who 
became one of the earliest apostles 
of the Temperance Cause and in the 
abolition of slavery. As elders, be 
sides Joshua Tucker, Elijah Belcher, 
and Jason Wright, who begin the 
| list, the most efficient were Ozias 
j Waldo, Samuel Huntington, James 
\ O. Morse and David H. Little. Mr. 
I Little, an elder from 1832 to 1870, 
I when he removed to Rochester, was 
identified with the religious concerns 
of this region till his death in 1873. 
James Otis Morse, an elder from 

i 

1821, was eminent in the law andexer 
! ted a wide influence in public affairs. 
; His portrait and that of his wife, 
| two remarkable pictures, the work of 
the great Inventor of the telegraph 
! in his early artist days, adorn the 
walls of the family mansion. Por- 
| traits of Dr. and Mrs. White, b^" the 
j same hand are in the possession of 
their descendant A. B. Cox, Esq. — 
! Perhaps the most zealous, and cer- 
| tainly the most successful, among the 
long list of ministers this church has 
had, was Rev. John Truair, who was 
called in July 1820 ; he having, with 
Mr. Cooley, Mr. Oliver and others 
formed the Presbytery of Otsego 
in 1819, when the old Oneida Pres- 
bytery was divided. He was of Eng- 
lish birth, a man educated, talented 
and full of vim ; of excessive activi- 
| ty, of great and persuasive powers 
I as a speaker, and so successful in 
j bringing souls to Christ as to merit 
j comparison with preachers of the 
j type of Mr. Moody. His pastorate, 
; though of less than two years, was a 
time of extraordinary growth. — 
Forty-six persons were at once added 
to the church in the fall of the year 



20 



TIMES OF GROWTH. 



he came ; and one hundred and 
twenty the next. Traces of his activ 
ity are seen . in the frequency with 
which he assembled his efficient Ses 
sion ; thirty eight sittings being held 
in the year and three quarters while he 
was pastor, and sometimes as many 
as six in a single month. He was 
seized with great zeal to save the 
godless seamen of New lork ; and 
his vehemence is exhibited in the 
fervid and urgent reasoning of a 
long letter he recorded, when be 
seeching permission to withdraw in 
order to undertake a work among 
that unpromising class, to which he 
had received an earnest summons, 
and for which his rugged eloquence 
no doubt eminently fitted him. The 
value the church placed on this ex- 
traordinary man is seen in their 
granting him six months leave of ab 
sence, owing to ill health, with con- 
tinued pay, and supplying his pulpit, 
Rev. Charles James Cook being se 
cured for the purpose. His request 
was most reluctantly consented to. 
He had the restless, untiring spirit 
of an evangelist and successful 
harvester of souls, for which the 
seed had been planted by faithful 
predecessors. The pastoral relation 
was dissolved March 24, 1822, and 
on the following Sunday he celebra- 
ted his last communion with the peo 
pie who prized him so well ; eight 
more having been added to the 
church, making one hundred and 
seventy- four in all, and swelling the 
list to four hundred, certainly a 
strong church for that day. 

Before Mr. Cooley left, a serious 
effort had been made to erect a new 
church, by the appointment of a 
committee, among whom were Mr. 
Morse and Oliver Judd, the latter 
the head of an ingenious family, who 
came from Connecticut and estab 



lished themselves in the manufac 
ture of iron ; and all of whom be- 
ing musical, long sustained the effi- 
ciency of the service of song. Edwin 
Judd, who might have been called 
like Aristides, The Just, bore the 
character of a Nestor to the village, 
and sang in the choir for forty years 
scarcely missing a Sunday. Mr. 
Truair imparted fresh energy to the 
building movement, but his departure 
delayed the plan for a few years 
longer. The church however was 
not to sink again into inactivity, for 
scarce a month had passed when Rev. 
Charles Fitch, a Princetonian licen- 
tiate was called, and August 22, 1822, 
he was ordained. The old church 
was now too ruinous for use, a pro- 
posal to repair it was negatived, and 
a fresh committee instructed to de- 
vise ways, and draft apian for anoth- 
er ; the services being held mean- 
while in the Lancasterian School 
House. An inkling of the usages of 
lite at that period is seen in the 
record that a certain apprentice was 
suspended from the church for run 
ning away from his master to parts 
unknown — and entries of the period 
fill long pages with the painful, and 
sometimes ludicrous accounts of reg 
ular trials in case of discipline. The 
conditions of religious life seem to 
have improved since then, and per- 
haps there has been some accession 
of discreetness to the church. Mr. 
Fitch was not well sustained, and ap- 
plied for a dismissal, November 1824, 
leaving the spring following. Rev. 
James B. Ambler succeeded as stated 
supply from May 1825 till July 1827. 
The efforts in regard to a new build- 
ing- were crowned with success in 
that year, and the white frame 
church reared its handsome steeple 
to a height of about a hundred feet 
in the air. It was in the classic style 



A CHAR MIX 

then so universally in vogue : appar - 
ently modelled after one of the num. 
erous churches of Sir Christopher 
Wren ; and became in its turn the 
model of many churches in this part 
of the country. In front was a por 
tico with four elegant Tuscan Pillars, 
above which rose the steeple, story 
on story, to the summit, which was 
adorned with a tinned dome, and gilt 
ball and vane, the latter being the 
same that surmounts the present 
spire. The gallery occupied three 
sides, the pulpit being between the 
entrances, with a choir and small 
organ above it. The old meeting 
house was sold, and the proceeds de 
voted to fencing the venerated and 
historic burial ground ; the new 
church having been built upon the 
site now occupied a short distance 
further up the street. The church 
was painted in that dazzling white so 
invariably chosen for the structures 
of the American village of the peri 
od ; whether to delude the beholder 
into the idea that he was gazing on 
classic forms in marble ; or because 
white being, as philosophers tell us, 
the sum of all the hues of the rain- 
bow united, it was thought impossi 
ble to go wrong with it ; it at all 
events seems to have been considered 
as the beau ideal for an element of 
of harmony with the intense green 
of the ^window blinds and the sur- 
rounding verdure. But it was a very 
pretty church ; as was, and still is, 
the village itself; embosomed in 
lovely maples, (thanks to an old fel- 
low named Gregg, who set them out 
at a shilling a piece), and set round 
about with hills whose tops were 
crowned with nodding forests ; with 
its little irregular square, on which 
were the Taverns, the Bank and the 
stores, and to which converged the 
four or five highways that came in 



G VILLAGE. 21 

from among the fragrant fields in as 
many different directions ; and with 
its three or four churches, its pleas 
ant houses and green, shady lawns. 
The demands of business had led to 
the establishment of the Central 
Bank as early as 1816, being then 
the only Bank in this region, and in 
1829 Mr. Horatio J. Olcott came 
here as its Cashier, since which peri- 
od his name has been a part of the 
history of the church, and a power 
in the financial concerns of the re- 
gion ; being a most serviceable sup 
porter of the former, in various 
capacities, especially as the effi 
cient treasurer, and becoming an el- 
der in 1875. Many of those who 
had been prepared for life in the 
Academy, reaped success in various 
fields ; and as its importance as a 
place of enterprise declined, some 
of them gradually returned to enjoy 
a more leisurely life, and the old vil 
lage assumed the air of a place of 
prosperous and quiet retirement. — 
The Sulphur Waters of Sharon and 
Richfield, on either hand began to 
attract numbers of people every 
summer, in search of health or of 
purer air, who loved to drive out to 
Cherry Valley to enjoy its charming 
and extensive prospects, and, those 
of them that were privileged, share 
the social cheer of its delightful 
homes. 

Among those w 7 ho came back to 
enjoy the felicities of rural life at 
different times, were Judge George 
C. Clyde and Samuel Campbell Esq., 
who retired after successful careers at 
the bar or on the bench, and Messrs. 
George B. Ripley and Henry Rose- 
boom who retired from mercantile 
life. All were descended from old 
settled families, and by their inter- 
est in church affairs greatly compen 
sated for the love of those who 



22 



DIVERSION OF TRAVEL. 



were departing. Mr. Clyde, who re- 
turned in 1852, was judge of the 
county of Columbia, and died in 1868. 
His was a family of influence ; his 
grandfather Col. Clyde having been 
the magistrate under whose call the 
church had reassembled after the war. 

Rev. C. W. D. Tappan was called, 
March 1828, but was dismissed at 
the end of the year. The accessions 
were slender at this period, and 
causes had begun to work which 
greatly diminished the impoitance of 
the village, commercially, as well as 
the prominence of the church. As 
I have'hinted the character of the place 
was changing, through causes that 
were irresistible, new lines of travel 
were opening up, which diverted that 
stream of life which had hitherto 
poured through, and drained off 
much of its young and enterprising 
talent. The Erie Canal was com- 
pleted in 1825, and a few years later 
the locomotive followed along the 
level stretch bordering the Mohawk 
and across the low divide to the 
lakes, which constitute the natural 
channel of commerce from the east 
to the west. The old highway along 
the hills became a deserted country 
road. The mere rivulet, only, of 
traffic was left, from the south to the 
canal and railway. At a later time 
this also was dried, by the building of 
the Albany & Susquehanna Railroad 
south of us ; when it became neces 
sary to regain communication with 
the outer world by a Railroad of our 
own, or sink into entire insignificance; 
an ineffectual attempt towards this 
same end by carrying a plank load 
to Fort Plain, in 1850. only serving 
to demonstrate the necessity. This 
however is anticipating. 

When Rev. Alex. M. Cowan was 
called, Oct. 8, 1829, there were still 
212 members, but at the end of his 



time, notwithstanding some fifty ad- 
ditions, the losses being greater than 
the gain the total had fallen to 208. 
Installed February 1830, he remain- 
ed till September, 1833. Frequent 
mention is now made of dismissals 
to the two Methodist Churches of 
the village, which about this time be 
gan to spring up, besides numerous 
others of that and other denomina- 
tions in every surrounding hamlet. 

A Presbyterian Church was organ- 
ized at the village of Buel besides an 
Associate Presbyterian which had 
been founded at East Springfield. — 
There were Baptists at Roseboom, at 
Leesville, and in many other places 
near by. The old congregation, 
which formerly had extended on all 
sides for miles, shrank to a circle 
but little beyond the limits of the 
village, giving out of its strength to 
all these new organizations, besides 
the constant outgo to the cities and 
to the west. 

The Episcopal Methodists, as well 
as the Protestant Methodists, com- 
menced organizations about 1830, the 
former under Rev. Mr. Sperry, and 
the latter under Rev. John L. Am- 
bler, who rode the circuits hereabouts 
and did good service to their denom- 
inations, erecting the respective 
churches about 1835, the latter of 
the two, however, having but a short 
existence, and leaving its building to 
be used by the Episcopalians, for 
some time and, later, as a barrack in 
the time of enlistment for the late 
war. Grace Episcopal Church was 
built in 1844, the old Presbyterian 
(which like Jerusalem above, is the 
mother of us all) again opening her 
treasures to furnish this new Zion. 
Mr. Henry Roseboom, Dr. White, 
Messrs. Jacob Livingston and J ames 
P. Brackett, and Judge Hammond, 
who had hitherto worshipped with us 



VILLAGE CENTENARY OF 1840. 



23 



were leaders in this enterprise, which 
like the M. E. Church, has ever since 
thrived under a long list of rectors.* 
Mr. Cowan died at Urbana, Ohio, at 
an advanced age, only last year. 

Rev. Wm. Lochead, settled De 
cember 1833, was made pastor in 
1834. James F. Cogswell, who ably 
conducted the Academy about 1820 
— 1830, had built a neat little house 
on the lot adjoining the church which 
was now purchased and fitted up for 
a Parsonage, where Mr. Lochead re- 
sided till his withdrawal, June 1838, 
upwards of forty having been added 
to the church. He went to Canada, 
and resides at Almonte, Ont. Rev. 
Albert V. H. Powell began his labors 
February 1839, and was installed in 
April, on a salary of $600 and the 

* The following list of Episcopal 
ian ministers and rectors may be 
convenient for reference. 

Previous to the organization of 
Grace Church the rectors of the 
church at Cooperstown held service 
at intervals, viz : 

David Nash, as early as 1806. 

Frederick T. Tiffany, 1822 to 
1828. 

Henry Miner, resided here for 
several years about 1840. 

Services were held during this pe- 
riod occasionally in the Academy, in 
the Presbyterian and M. E. church- 
es, in the Session House, and more 
regularly in the Protestant Metho- 
dist church, which was the case when 
the first rector was settled, since 
which time the succession has been 
as follows, 

Rectors. Began . . Ended. 

Joseph Ransom, 1845, . . . 1850. 

I. Leander Townsend, . 1850, . . . 1852. 

John Dowdney, 1852, . . . 1853. 

George H. Nichols, . . . 1854, ... 1 865. 

Flavel S. Mines, 1865, . . .1867. 

David L. Schwartz, . . . 1867, . . . 1872. 

Henrv H. Oberly, 1873, . . . 1874. 

J. H. Hobart De Mille, . 1874, . . . 

The date of the erection of the 
church is 1848, instead of 1844, as 
given above. 



parsonage, leaving in November 1840 
The prayer meetings had thus far 
been held at private houses, in the 
roomy vestibule of the church, or in 
one of the rooms of the Academy ; 
but a proposal to build a Session 
House was now made which was car- 
ried out in 1840, the building being 
situated adjoining the Academy 
grounds, a few rods north of the 
church. 

This year was signalized on the 
Fourth of July by a Centennial Cel- 
ebration of the settlement; when 
Wm. H. Seward, the Governor of 
the State, Dr. Nott, then the vener- 
able President of Union College, and 
others were present ; and Hon. Wm. 
W. Campbell, at that time residing 
in New York, made the principal ad 
dress, f A citizen, then, and long be- 
fore, prominent, was the learned Dr. 
Wm. Campbell, mathematician as 
well as physician, who at one time 
held the office of Surveyor General. 
His adopted daughter, Judith Camp- 
bell became extensively known as a 
devoted Missionary in Persia, having 
married Dr. Asahel Grant of that 
Mission, and laboring with him for 
years near Lake Ooromiah.J 

Another individual of prominence 
was Jeremiah E. Cary ; a lawyer, in- 
fluential in politics, and widely known 
he was elected to the 28th Congress, 
embracing the years 1843-5, and has 
since followed a successful life else- 
^where. 

| Rev. Wm. Lusk, was invited to the 
I charge, November 1840, and duly 
| called the following January, the par 
! sonage being repaired for his use by 
I the addition of a new wing. When 
i the relation was dissolved, December 

f Centennial Celebration at Cher- 
ry Valley, N. Y., 1840. 

% Life of Judith Grant, bv vVni. 
W. Campbell. 



24 



OLD CHURCH RENOVATED. 



1846, though thirty -five had been add- 
ed, the list of members had shrunk 
to 146. Mr. Lusknow lives at Eeeds 
burg, Wis., and his son is pastor of 
the Episcopal Church at Canajoharie. 

These were the days of the Mexi 
can War and the great California ex- 
citement, and among those who par 
ticipated in the events of the time, 
was Lieut. Edward Gilbert who went : 
out in the regiment of Stevenson. — 
He had become a printer in the of *j 
fice of the C. V. Gazette, and joined j 
in establishing the Alta-Californian, j 
the first newspaper on that coast. — 
Gilbert was a man of considerable j 
distinction, taking part in the early I 
movements of that vigorous young 
civilization, and when California be- 
came a State he was chosen as her 
representative in Congress. Person- 
al feeling ran high in that excitable 
region ; an article in his newspaper 
evoked a challenge from Col. Denver 
which led to the death of this prom- 
sing man in the encounter which fol- 
lowed. Another was John Brackett 
who went out in the same regiment, I 
and became a Captain. 

Rev. Geo. S. Boardman began to j 
preach early in 1847, his call being 
dated in March, and his installation | 
followed, June 1848. He was a val 
uable acquisition to the church, and 
still continues on other fields his ca 
reer of usefulness ; but the appalling 
circumstances attending the death of 
his wife broke up his labors, and led 
to his departure. A servant of the* 
family was visited by a relative from j 
the city, who on his arrival was seiz- 
ed with cholera which prevailed that \ 
year, and Mrs. Boardman in attend 
ing the sufferer contracted the dread- 
ful disease, and soon expired. The 
loss of this beloved lady was deeply 
deplored, and the awful event of the 



sudden advent of such a pestilence 
in so wholesome a locality, produced 
a profound anxiety, though no other 
cases followed. Mr. Boardman was 
dismissed with deep expressions of 
sympathy and regret, November 19, 
1849. He is now living at St. Paul, 
Minn. 

Rev. John G. Hall, chosen pastor 
in March, that year, arrived in May, 
and was installed July 10th. His 
was a long and industrious pastorate, 
a new field of usefulness being open- 
ed up for him in the conversion of 
the old Academy which for some time 
had been in the charge of Rev. Jas. 
H. Carruth, now of Lawrence, Kan., 
where he still keeps up his love for 
Botany, into a female Seminary, 
which attracted large numbers of 
young ladies from every part of the 
country. Mr. Charles G. Hazeltine 
was at the head of this undertaking . 
the department of Music being in 
charge of Mr. Jonathan Fowler, a 
preceptor of unusual talent in that 
accomplishment, the reputation of 
the institution, in music and in paint- 
ing especially, becoming very envia- 
ble. The building was successively 
enlarged, and the beautifully shaded 
grounds were animated with groups 
of light-hearted girls, who added a 
feature of great liveliness to the vil 
lage life, as well as of interest to the 
congregation each Sabbath day. 

A sermon by Mr. Hall, in the Ga- 
zette, September 29, 1852, commem- 
orates the thorough renovation of 
the church. The old choir was taken 
down, the pulpit recessed, and at the 
rear end an annex was erected for 
an organ of nineteen stops, an ex- 
cellent instrument by Hall & La- 
baugh of N. Y., which had been in 
use in Trinity Church, Newark, N. J., 
but in very serviceable condition, (as 



MUCH LOVED ZION. 



25 



it still is in its present position, with j 
a remodelled exterior, in the existing 
stone church.) A new bell of 1442 
pounds weight, was also added. Ev 
ery Fourth of July was customarily 
made the occasion of expressions of 
that patriotism, which has ever been 
characteristic of the people, and the 
church bell of course became vocal 
with love of country. The boys of 
the village took the superintendance , 
of this part of the demonstration 
into their own hands ; and they had 
the delightful habit of commencing 
the ringing of the bell at midnight, 
and keeping up a perpetual clangor 
till long after dawn. The pastor, 
having enjoyed this refreshing music 
on several successive "fourths," on 
cne occasion resolved to forestall the 
threatened joy. On the previous 
day he quietly ascended the steeple, 
unpinned the clapper, and descend- 
ing with his prize, placed it in con- 
cealment. But when did the adroit- 
ness of any one man circumvent the 
genius of an army of boys? They 
discovered the plot, ran to the vil- 
lage foundery, cut a trench in the 
earthern floor, and turned on the 
molten iron. Before the hour for the 
noisy jubilation to begin, they had a 
stout clapper ready cooled and slung, | 
and rung out their Hail to Freedom 
on the clear night air. 

In 1854 the town, already dimin 
ished from its original size, was again 
divided, the southern portion being 
set off under the name of Roseboom, 
in compliment to the venerable Abra 
ham Roseboom, who had inherited a 
large tract of land through his fath- 
er, from Col. Myndert Roseboom, 
who had received it for military ser- 
vice in the war, and on which he set- 
tled in 1805. 

Mr. Hall's ministry was productive 
of great success ; upwards of eighty 



were added to the church ; but the 
outgo was still so great as to leave 
but one hundred and fifty when he 
retired — indeed it was for years the 
rule that though there was always a 
real growth in the winning of souls 
the gain and loss, very nearly bal- 
lanced and kept the church at about 
the same strength. The loss by 
death was but a small part of the 
cause of this apparent lack of in- 
crease. The church was continually 
gaining souls to Christ ; but the lack 
of a theatre for enterprise at home 
led to a continual draining away of 
the young growth to more hopeful 
directions. Cherry Valley was gain 
ing the name of being "a famous 
place to start from," and there is a 
certain value in the saying. Like 
similar old seats of religion and cul 
ture throughout the east it was rear- 
ing up the material for the nation's 
energetic advancement. In the cities 
and on the prairies of the w T est ; on 
the southern seaboard, in New York, 
Brooklyn, Albany and other centers 
of activity the youths, wdio had been 
trained to piety and principle from 
the pulpit of the old church, were, 
as men, making themselves felt in the 
concerns of government, contending 
for justice on the Judge's bench and 
at the bar, or urging on the wheels 
of commercial activity. Such an old 
church is often looked upon as fee- 
ble ; but in fact its parish is in some 
sense co-extensive with the country ; 
and as the Jews of old went up from 
all parts of the Roman Empire at 
times to attend the festivals in the 
ancient temple, so her sons ever 
bear the old cradle of their early re- 
ligious impressions in memory, as a 
spot dearer to their hearts than any 
new found scenes, and whenever the 
grasp of eager engagements relaxes, 
they love to make the pilgrimage to 



26 



GEOLOGY. 



Cherry Valley, to explore the old bur 
ial ground, and spend a Sabbath or 
two among the familiar faces in the 
dear old church. Mr. Hall was dis- 
missed in April 1857, with warm ex 
pressions of regret, and in July de- 
parted to assume the pastorate of a 
church at Fort Plain, and now re • 
sides at Cleveland. 

Kev. James D wight, in 1857 sup 
plied the pulpit, having been com- 
mended for the purpose by Rev. Al- 
fred Campbell, D. D., who had him- 
self received a call to this church, 
which other engagements led him to 
decline. Mr. D wight left at the end 
of the year for the purpose of matur 
ing a plan he had formed for the es 
tablishment of a College in Turkey. 
The son of a missionary, and born at 
Malta, he was filled with the idea that 
his true field of usefulness lay in that 
work for which he had prepared 
himself by the study both of medi- 
cine and divinity ; the story of his 
disappointment in this scheme is af- 
fectingly told in a little memorial 
volume by Rev. H. M. Booth of En 
glewood. He was an enthusiast in 
literature and science, and loved to 
explore the exceedingly interesting 
geological formations of Cherry Yal 
ley ; where every stone contains its 
fossils, and where the very foundation 
rock has been grooved and polished 
by the vast primeval glacier. Here, 
with his friend Oliver A. Morse, as 
deeply devoted to such studies as 
himself, he found a history earlier by 
millions of years than that which I have 
been relating, and wrote of it as one 
does to whom such studies are a pas 
sion.* Mr. Morse was one of those 

* Note on Geology. — Those acquainted 
with the subject, will perceive how interest- 
ing the locality is for geological exploration, 
from the fact that, if we take the old limits 
of Cherry Yalley, and traverse from North 



whom no attractions in the outer 
world could draw away to contend 
amid its turmoils. Trained as a 
lawyer, with a cultured mind, and 
great interest in literary pursuits, he 
loved the genial society of his na- 
tive village. He represented the dis- 
trict in the XXXIYth Congress, 
(1857-9). Western enterprise held 
a share of his attention, and he em- 
barked earnestly in the cutting of 
the Portage Lake canal, of Lake Su- 
perior, of which he was one of the 
projectors. 

Rev. Alex. S. Twombly succeeded, 
being called, November 1858, and in- 
stalled in February ensuing. A more 
serious draft upon the patriotism of 
the community, than that related a 
few pages above, arose with the 

to South, we embrace the entire extent of 
the Upper Silurian and Devonian rocks. 
Commencing at Fort Plain, we have the 
following : 

Trenton limestone, at Fort Plain. 

Hudson River Shales passing from Her- 
kimer county to Sharon. 

Oneida Conglomerate, thinning out from 
Stark Eastwird to the N. E. corner of 
Cherry Yalley. 

Cl inton beds, passing from Stark to Cana- 
joharie. 

Niagara limestone, from Springfield, 
along Bowman's Creek to Sprout Brook 
at id Sharon. 

Salina, or Onondaga salt group, base of 
the hills, the Sulphur and salt springs issuing 
from it. Gypsum deposits at Stark. 

Lower Helderburg rocks, Judd's Falls ; 
including the Tentaculite or Water lime, 
Pentamerus, Delthyris. etc. The chasm at 
Judd's Falls is 160 feet in depth, exhibiting 
the formations to great advantage. 

Oriskany sandstone, in scattered pieces. 

Cauda Galli, or " Cock tail" grit, above 
Judds Falls. 

Schoharie Grit, on the road to the Falls. 

Onondaga limsstone, Hammond's quarry, 
etc. 

Corniferous, Campbells quarry, Bald- 
win's lime kiln, etc. 
Marcellus shale, Thomas's gorge, etc. 



27 



opening of the great War for the 
Union in 1861. In that hour of agi- 
tation the devotion of our little vil- 
lage was profoundly manifested. No 
sooner was the news of the invest- 
ment of Sum tor received than a com 
pany was raised and offered to the 
government. Being the headquar 
ters of the 39th New York State 
militia, Cherry Valley was made the 
point for the raising of that regi- 
ment.But the demand for men was 
so urgent, that when six companies 
had been filled they were transferred 
and incorporated with the 76th vol- 
unteers, and fought a long list of 
Battles from Rappahannock station 
to Appomattox Court House. Two 
companies of the 121st, were raised 



Hamilton shale, Lady bill. Hamilton 
hill, etc. 

Portage and Chemung, Westford, Mid- 
dlefield, etc. 

Catskill, or Old Red Sandstone, South- 
ern limits of the county. 

The village rests on a platform of the 
corniferous limestone, whose surface is beau- 
tifully polished and grooved by the actioD of 
the glacier, which left its marks also on the 
summits of the hills on either side. The 
theory of erosion can be beautifully studied 
in the rounded contours of the hills, and the 
breaking down of the thick floor of lime- 
stone along the margin of the Mohawk Val- 
ley ; the limestone forming the old Devo- 
nian seacoast. Great ledges of rock are 
exposed, over whose almost level surface the 
wild surf of that primeval ocean rolled and 
beat for ages. The action of the waves is 
seen in the wearing out of the fissures and 
cracks, and the formation of numberless 
potholes, etc. , and in the broken fragments 
of corals, crinoids, and shells, of which the 
reef is wholly made up. 

The hillsides are studded with boulders, 
left when they were dropped by the ice, 
when it melted and disappeared. The fer- 
tile intervale of the valley is an ancient lake 
bottom with its sand drifts and gravel beds 
of the recent period succeding the glacier. 
There is quite a remarkable formation of 
tufa at Van Hornsville, worked by the water 
into fantastic caves, etc. 



here, a regiment which became one 
of the very finest in the entire army. 
There also went a squadron for Har 
ris' (6th) cavalry, and part of a com- 
pany for Berdan's, Sharpshooters, 
besides scores of individuals who 
entered other organizations or 
shipped in the Navy. The list of 
those who rose to office, or sustained 
an equally honorable record as private 
soldiers, is so long that I despair of 
doing the subject justice within the 
space allotted me. It was simply a 
magnificent record. Cherry Valley 
was drained of all its available men, 
long before the day of drafts and 
bounties began. Of how many in 
all went to the war out of its popu 
lation, there seems to be no accurate 
account ; but on the annual Decora 
tion day it is the custom to hold in 
the old cemetery a memorial service 
with touching and impressive cere- 
monies ; and some thirteen mounds 
are then adorned with garlands ; the 
graves of those whose bodies were 
sent home to their native valley for 
interment ; while on a pedestal in 
the centre of the ground is placed a 
floral offering inscribed with the 
names of thirty two others, whose 
bones are known to lie bleaching 
where they fell on the bloody field. 
Some died and left no record ; some 
perjshed in southern prisons ; while 
others in numbers ,who survived, still 
carrv with them the painful marks of 
the strife, or the even more painful 
recollections of the cruelties of cap- 
tivity ; and will till their dying day ; 
with the dead, the honored recipients 
of a nation's gratitude. 

Those were times of great activity 
and of dread anxiety; the women 
meeting together to provide comforts 
for their absent sons and husbands, 
and listening breathlessly while the 
dreaded roll was read, which too oft- 



28 



WAR RECORD. 



en told of the sacrifice of those who 
had been the stay or the hope of 
their lives. They wrought a beauti- 
ful silken banner that might be car- 
ried at the head of the devoted col- 
umn. It was so carried, and after a 
score of bloody struggles of which 
it was the center, it was brought 
back tattered and rent, but covered 
over with the names of the great 
battles over which it had waved. It 
has the names Rappahannock, War- 
renton, Gainesville, 2nd Bull Run, 
South Mountain, Antietam, Frede 
rick, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg 
and Mine Run. In 1870, by their 
exertions principally, a handsome 
marble column arose in the little 
public square, on which is the in 
scription, 

THESE ARE THE NAMES 
OF THE MEN OF CHERRY VALLEY, 
WHO DIED 
THAT THEIR COUNTRY MIGHT LIVE. 

It bears the names in full of all our 
dead that could be ascertained, with 
their rank and corps ; and, on fillets 
which surround the shaft, the now 
imperishable words, Gettysburg, 
Fredericksburg, Antietam, Second 
Bull Run, Wilderness, Petersburg, 
Cold Harbor, "Winchester. 

Mr. Twombly received a call to 
Rochester, which he declined, at the 
urgent remonstrance of his people ; 
but in May, 1862, accepted an invi- 
tation to Albany. Thence he some 
years later went to take the old 
church at Stamford, Conn., and now 
is the pastor of a large congrega 
tional church on old Bunker hill, at 
Charlestown, near the place of his 
birth. While at Albany, Mr. Twom- 
bly spent a vacation here, the people 
putting some furniture etc. into the 
parsonage for his use. While enjoy, 
ing this rest, he made a series of 
droll sketches, illustrating his picnic 



life in the old parsonage, (which 
leaked atrociously) and the delights 
of a summer in the country general- 
ly. These sketches have been since 
engraved and published under the 
title of "Maple Leaves, or a Summer 
at Happy Valley," a most amusing 
thing. 

Rev. Edward P. Gardner succeeded 
commencing his labors in Oct. that 
year, being called in Aug., 1863, and 
his ordination following, Feb. 11th, 
1864. An unfortunate combination 
of circumstances about this time led 
to the so generally deplored discon- 
tinuance of the classical institution, 
which for so many years exerted its 
beneficial influence over the social, 
moral, and religious life of the neigh- 
borhood. One prime occasion of this 
misfortune was the then isolated sit- 
uation we were in, owing to the dif- 
ficulty of access. Until our own 
railroad was built Cherry Valley 
could only be reached by a laborious 
stage ride over the hills. Another, 
was the breaking out of that kind 
of rage for grand seminaries, like 
the "Gold fever," and the "Caulus 
Multicaulus" insanity, which involved 
great amounts of capital, and unset- 
tled better-founded interests, with- 
out producing any permanent com- 
pensation. Immense buildings sprang 
up like magic in a host of villages, — 
(near us, at Ft. Plain, Carlisle, Char- 
lotte, Cooperstown, Warner, Frank- 
lin, etc.,) offering accommodations 
for pupils from two to eight hundred 
each, and nearly in every case pass 
ing through a brief hour, and then 
expiring ; as was inevitabfe, from the 
lack of all sufficient reason for their 
existence. The more accessible lo- 
cation or the flattering cheapness of 
other schools gradually counterbal- 
lanced the advantages of long estab- 
lishment, superior reputation for ex- 



ACADEMY CLOSED. GREAT FIRE. 



29 



ce Hence, and salubrious air of the 
old Seminary. Before the determi- 
nation was summoned to rectify the 
one really formidable inconvenience, 
other unfortunate causes intervened, 
which made that more difficult, and 
hastened the decline of the school 
beyond immediate recovery. Its suc- 
cess as a young ladies" seminary had 
been so marked as to encourage the 
enlargement of the building ; not 
only once ; when the south wing was 
built ; but a second time, to complete 
the design by a wing corresponding 
on the north ; in which latter venture 
the property was incautiously mort- 
gaged, though for no great amount. 
Then came the war, with its commo- 
tions and overturnings, diminishing 
the attendance so seriously, with the j 
competition of so many rivals, as to 
occasion the withdrawal of Mr. Haz- 
eltine in 1862; when, after an un 
successful attempt to establish a 
boys' academy by Prof. Campbell ; 
an energetic effort was put forth by 
inviting to its superintendence Prof. 
J. L. Sawyer, a gentleman of high 
classical attainments and long expe- 
rience in the training of youth ; un- 
der whom it was hoped that the in- 
stitution would in time regain its 
former extensive reputation as a 
classical academy. But a steady ef- 
fort through years was necessary for 
this, and that in face of the great 
disadvantages mentioned, every day 
more manifest ; together with the 
fact that the avenue for military dis- 
tinction, opened up by the war, di- 
verted the thoughts of our young 
men from the more peaceful paths 
of culture and professional life. — 
Among the costly sacrifices of the 
war, none need strike one anxious 
for the future of the country as 
more mournful than the loss which 
myriads of our best young men met 



when, under the generous impulse 
of patriotism they left their studies 
to take up the sword. 

Next came the trial by fire. In 
the vacation of 1866, on the 5th of 
July, a disastrous conflagration, 
caused by a malicious incendiary, 
swept away half the town, including 
much of the busines portion, beside 
an old established hotel. A still 
more important hotel had been 
burned four weeks earlier, the old 
historic "Tryon House, 1 ' with its 
bower of thickly planted maples. — 
The destruction of so large an 
amount of property severely crippled 
the business of the place, and threw 
discouragement over all ; and the 
loss to public convenience in the 
burning of the hotels, made the task 
of maintaining the school still hard- 
er ; since they had afforded facilities 
to the parents and friends of the 
pupils which had become indispensi- 
ble. The emergency led to, what 
was expected to be only a temporary, 
occupation of the Seminary proper 
ty for that purpose. The step 
seemed to be compelled by circum- 
stances, but was extremely unfortu- 
nate. The school, so interrupted, 
could not be revived ; the property 
became alienated ; and thus the 
grand old Academy, the mother of 
such a multitude of cultivated men 
and women, passed out of existence, 
to the lasting regret of every friend 
of education. 

Mr. Sawyer retired to the editor- 
ship of the Cherry Valley Gazette, 
which had lately been under the edi 
torial control of A. S. Bottsford. — 
This newspaper, whose files form a 
history of this neighborhood from 
an early date was founded in 1818. 
by Wm, McLean, who was the pio- 
neer in the journalism which has as- 
sumed such importance in Western 



30 



CHERRY VALLEY GAZETTE. 



and Central New York. Mr. McLean 
had begun in 1790, by publishing 

the " Whitestown Gazette and Catos 
Patrol" at what is now New Hart- 
ford, then, with Utica, etc., forming 
part of Whitestown. His son, 
Charles McLean Esq. succeeded in 
the editorship of the Gazette in 1832, 
continuing till 1847, when he became 
Clerk of the County ; John B. King 
and Mr. Bottsford following. A rival 
called the Otsego Farmer, appeared 
in 1841, soon to expire. Mr. Mc- 
Lean has for years acted as the re- 
spected local magistrate and benevo- 
lent counsellor of our village. He 
possesses the files of both the Patrol 
and the Gazette, both of great value. 

Mr. Gardner was an extremely in- 
dustrious pastor, the addition of 
some sixty names to the roll, attest- 
ing the success of his labors. He 
raised the Sunday School to an ex- 
traordinary degree of efficiency. — 
This branch of church work is one of 
which the records afford us little ac- 
count. How early a Sunday School 
was begun, we are not told. At this 
time it numbered considerably above 



one hundred scholars, and every 
year, both then and since the anni- 
versary exercises at Christmas, and 
the usual picnics in the summer have 
been occasions of great interest and 
pleasure to both the little ones and 
their friends. A large proportion of 
those coming into the church have 
been from this cradle of religious ef- 
fort and instruction. The church at 
Buel, having grown feeble of late 
years, preaching was undertaken 
there on Sunday afternoons ; but the 
distance and laborousness of it led 
to its abandonment without perma- 
nent results. That church practical 
ly ceased to exist, till the present 
year, (1876) when a very promising 
effort is on foot to revive its work, 
by the remodelling of the building, 
a considerable flock there now await 
ing admission to the fold. Mr. 
Gardner was dismissed October, 
1847 ; and after a pastorate of some 
years at Hoboken, N. J., became pas- 
tor of the Woodland Avenue Church, 
Cleveland ; our pulpit being supplied 
in the ensuing enterval by Rev. Mr. 
VanDyke, and Rev. Elihu T. Sanford. 



CHAPTER THE FIFTH. 
THE STONE CHURCH. 



I have thus brought the history of 
the church down to the time when 
the present pastor began his labors, 
May, 1868, his call being dated Feb 
ruary 26th, and his installation tak- 
ing place June 18th, of the same 
year. The purposes of permanent 
record, for which it is undertaken, 
require that the transactions and re- 
sults of this pastorate to the present 
time should also be given, though 
they might otherwise properly be 
omitted. 



From the narrative as a whole, the 
following may be derived as a gen- 
eral summary. The church, found- 
ed in 1741 has existed over a period 
of 135 years. It has had five succes- 
sive church edifices, in three differ- 
ent locations. It has received the 
labors of some twenty : two different 
ministers, including the present, be- 
sides occasional temporary supplies. 
Of these twenty-two, fifteen have 
been regularly installed pastors. — 
Mr. Dunlop's pastorate was violent- 



SUMMARY OF PROGRESS. 



1 y ended after he had been on the 
field for thirty seven years. Mr. 
Cooley served ten years, and Mr. 
Hall seven. The other pastorates 
ranged from five years to one or two. 

The following is the list, with the 
years of their labors : 



Samuel Dunlop, 1741-78. 

Eliphalet Nott, 1796-98. 

Thos. K. Kirkham 1803-04 

Geo. Hall, 1806-07. 

Jesse Townsand, 1810. 

EliF. Cooley, 1810-20. 

John Truair, 1820-22. 

Charles Jas. Cook, 1822. 

Charles Fitch, 1822-24. 

Evans Beards ley*, 1825. 

* Jas. B. Ambler, 1825-27. 

C. W. D. Tappan, 1828-29. 

Alex. M. Cowan, 1830-33. 

Wm. Loghead, 1834-38. 

Albert V. H. Powell, 1838-39. 

William Lusk, 1841-46. 

Geo. S. Boardman, 1847-49. 

John G. Hall, 1850-57. 

Jas. H. Dwight, 1857-58. 

Alex. S. Twombly, 1858-62. 

Edward P. Gardner, 1862-67. 

Henry XJ. Swinnerton, 1868. — 



[Pastors printed in small caps, stated sup- 
plies in Roman, other supplies in in italics.] 

The following is a list of the Eld- 
ers since 1804, twenty-two in all. 



Joshua Tucker,i 1804. 

Elijah Belcher, 2 " 

Jason Wright, 2 " 

John Horton,i 1807. 

John Hor ton Jr., 2 " 

Ozias Waldo,i " 

John Gault,i 1808. 

Jesse Johnson, i 1814. 

James Thompson, 2 " 

James Church, i 1816. 

Hugh Robinson,! 1819. 

Ephraim Hanson, 2 " 

Samuel Huntington, 2 " 

James O. Morse, 1 1821. 

Alfred Crafts,! « 

Benjamin Tucker, 2 1832. 

David H. Little,! " 

Hubbard Metcalf, 1840. 

Charles G. Hazeltine,2 1853. 

A. Beach Giles, 2 " 

Elijah R. Thompson, 1875. 

Horatio J. 01cott,t " 



1 Deceased. 2 Dismissed to other churches. 



31 

The names of eight hundred and 
sixty-four persons are on the extant 
roll, who at different times have been 
members of the church, from 1804. 
There is no list of the members pre- 
vious to the massacre; but presum- 
ing that as many as one hundred and 
thirty six must have been gathered 
during the long ministry of Mr. 
Dunlop, we may make the total, one 
thousand. The old church has there- 
fore, in heaven and on earth, a nu- 
merous flock, even as it has had many 
shepherds. It has had a long his- 
tory, and has not existed in vain. — 
Its honorable record is worthy of 
preservation, and there is a feeling 
of satisfaction in submitting the story 
of its career, as of a duty performed 
such as one generation owes to those 
which have preceded it. 

It remains only to sketch in brief 
the occurences of the last eight years. 
The time had now arrived for the 
realization of the long contemplated 
projects of securing connection with 
the outer world by railway. The 
plan of a road to unite with the New 
York Central, for which a survey had 
been made, having failed, a charter 
was obtained for one to connect with 
the Albany & Susquehanna at Coble- 
skill, and a company formed with Wm 
W. .Campbell as its president, and H. 
J. Olcott as its treasurer. Opera- 
tions were commenced, and the road 
was opened in June, 1870. The sue 
cess of the enterprise was largely 
due to the indefatigable efforts of 
DeWitt C. Bates, Esq., the superin- 
tendent, a lawyer of wide influence 
whose acquaintance with all the inter- 

* Rev. Mr. Beardsley's name was over- 
looked in the course of the sketch, he 
preached but a short time. 

t Mr. Olcott has been treasurer since 
about 1840. Those preceeding were, in or 
der, Elijah Belcher, Dr. Wm. Campbell, 
Alfred Crafts, and D. II. Little. 



RAIL WA Y. MISS R OSEB OM'S OFFER. 



ests of the locality, gave his services 
the greatest value. Mr. A. B. Cox, 
James Young, Esq., and the other 
gentlemen identified with the en- 
terprise assisted with capital and 
otherwise, and deserve the ear- 
nest thanks of the community. It 
was a mighty undertaking for our 
strength, but it will amply repay all 
it has cost in the impetus it is im- 
parting to every interest, both ma- 
terial and moral. The historian, 
Thiers, says of the French revolu- 
tion, that, though decried by those 
whom it had overthrown, or whose 
illusions it had not realized, it was 
still the cause of reason and justice, 
and held the attachment belonging 
to a great affair. And it is true of 
this improvement that, though we j 
may complain on account of a little 
taxation, or be disappointed because 
we have not become a Chicago, yet 
it is vital to our existence, and the 
turning point on which hinges the 
evident return to more prosperous 
times in our neighborhood. 

The church soon began to feel the 
enlivening influence. The parsonage 
was in 1871 completely remodelled 
and put in thorough repair, a fresh 
story being added to the wing, and 
neat porches and piazzas erected, 
rendering it as commodious as could 
be desired. But this was only the 
beginning of what was to come. — 
On the 14th of May, 1872, the Board 
of Trustees received the following 
generous and unexpected proposal 
in regard to a new church edifijce. 

To the Trustees of the First Pres 
byterian Church of the town of Cher- 
ry Valley. 

Gentlemen : — It is now more than 
forty years since your present church 
edifice was erected. Extensive re- 
pairs would be necessary to render it 
comfortable for the society. I pro- 
pose to render repairs unnecessary 



by the erection of a new church edi- 
fice, and accordingly render to you 
this proposition. If you will author- 
ize me to dispose of the present 
building in such manner as I may 
deem best, I will cause the same to 
be taken down or moved away, and 
build and finish on the same site 
ready for use by the congregation a 
suitable edifice of stone. In this 
undertaking I am mindful of my 
family's connection with the town 
since its early settlement, and of that 
family and personal connection with 
the church which has continued for 
four generations, and purpose to 
erect a building which may serve as 
a grateful memorial to my beloved 
parents and dear sister, deceased ; 
and which while it will be an orna- 
ment to my native town, will. I hope, 
prove a pleasant and attractive reli- 
gious home for many coming gener- 
ations. 

Thankful to Almighty God for the 
numerous blessings bestowed upon 
my family and myself in the years 
that have passed, and for the oppor- 
tunity to devote a portion of his 
good gifts to me to his service, I 
am very truly your friend and co- 
worker. Catharine Roseboom. 

Cheery Valley, May 4th, 1872. 

The church was in comparatively 
good preservation, the renewal of 
the floor timbers being the principal 
necessity, though the arrangement 
of the interior was somewhat incon- 
venient. The memories of years 
lingered about it, and it seemed to 
some doubtful whether the beauties 
of any new sanctuary could compen- 
sate for the hallowed associations 
which must depart with the old. But 
so liberal an offer could not be de 
clined ; consent was given with many 
thankful expressions, and the work 
was begun immediately. On Sun- 
day, May 19th, divine service was 
held for the last time in the old 
church, and its heavy timbers of elm 
had been all laid low by June 11th, 
when the foundations for the new 



NEW CHURCH DEDICATED. 



33 



building were begun. No sacred de- 
posits were found in the old founda- 
tion. The Corner Stone was laid 
July 25th, a brief historical account 
of the church (published in the Ga- 
zette of August 4th) being deposited 
in it with other documents and me- 
mentos. The work proceeded with- 
out accident, attaining its comple- 
tion by October 1st, 1873, when the 
dedication took place, of which a 
full account was also published in 
the Gazette, with a description of the 
building. It was a beautiful day, 
and a great concourse of people 
filled the building to overflowing. — 
The printed programme bore a list 
of the chief dates in the history. — 
After the Invocation and some re- 
sponsive Psalms, the Kevs of the ed- 
ifice were received from the Donor, 
Miss Kate Koseboom, and delivered 
to the Trustees for the use of the 
people, by Hon. Wm. W. Campbell, 
who accompanied the act with a short 
address, reviewing the career of the 
church in the past. Aftei a reply by 
Mr. H. J. Olcott on behalf of the 
trustees and the people, expressive 
of their thanks for the gift ; the ser- 
mon was preached by Rev. Anson J. 
Upson, D. D. of Albany, from Psalm 
CXXII. The Church was then sol- 
emnly dedicated to the service of 
God in prayer by the pastor, and af- 
ter addresses by Rev. P. F. Sanborn 
and F. B. Savage, the audience 
passed to the Lecture Room, where 
a repast was spread. 

Nelson M. Whipple Esq. of Brook- 
lyn is the architect of the building. 
The style chosen is the early English 
inclining to the Decorated. Three 
varieties of stone enter into the 
composition of the walls, dark blue 
limestone, with light gray founda- 
tions, and coigns, and red New Jer- 
sey sandstone arches and copings. 



While extremely plain, it has an air 
of great solidity, and presents an 
appearance of cheerful dignity, and 
conscientious treatment. The inte- 
rior is finished in solid walnut, the 
walls and windows being richly dec- 
orated in warm colors, and the up- 
holstering, etc. of deep crimson in 
good keeping. The edifice has a 
clerestory nave, and two aisles. The 
spire, which is 150 feet high, occu- 
pies one angle, and being the point 
of connection between the church 
proper and the Lecture room adjoin- 
ing, constitutes the central feature of 
the front as a whole. On the south 
face of the tower is the monogram, 
C. R. worked in the masonry ; and 
over the porch the initials of the 
architect. Beneath the rear part is 
a handsome parlor, with suitable 
closets, and a pastor's room, connec- 
ting with the pulpit. These apart- 
ments are the special quarters of the 
Ladies Society, an institution which 
was formed in 1868, and which has 
since always been a most useful ad- 
junct in the work of the church. — 
Each new project has generally here 
been taken up and commended to 
the support of the congregation. — 
by this means there have been suc- 
cessively undertaken improvements in 
the heating and lighting of the old 
church and session house, repairs on 
the parsonage and on the organ, car 
pets, upholstery and pulpit furni- 
ture for the new church, the gas ma- 
chines and fixtures, furnishing of the 
parlor, etc., besides much benevolent 
work. It has thus proved a highly 
useful vehicle in developing the ac- 
tivity of the church, besides afford- 
ing a pleasing medium for social in- 
tercourse. Ample accommodations 
for the Sunday School are afforded 
in the Lecture room, which has a 
primary school room attached. 



34 



REVIVAL AND GROWTH. 



A most gratifying increase of in 
terest was at once noticeable, several 
persons being received into the 
church on the first Sabbath of its 
occupancy. In January 1875, union 
services were held alternately with 
the M. E. Church in the observance 
of the Week of Prayer, Kev. W. F. 
Tooke being pastor of that church, 
and laboring assiduously to deepen 
the impressions of the people. An 
unusual degree of religious interest 
was developed. The meetings weie 
sustained almost nightly till April, 
with effective assistance from Rev. 
Mr. Thurston of Syracuse, and Rev. 
Mr. Blinn of Cambridge for some 
weeks. Twenty-six persons united 
with the church as the fruit of this 
effort, one half of whom were men, 
and a number, heads of families. A 
revival followed the present year in 
the M. E. Church, resulting in an 
unprecedented accession to its num- 
bers, and in which we had a gener- 
ous share. The general improve 
ment in the state of religion is not 
the least happy effect of these 
blessed visitations, a deeper feeling 
of seriousness having been thrown 
over the entire community, awaken- 
ing a more earnest prayerfnlness, and 
exciting the hope that greater bless- 
ings are to follow. A Young Men's 
Christian Association has been 
formed, with a large number of mem 
bers. The cause of Temperance has 
received fresh attention, of late years, 
and there is a stronger sentiment 
springing up with respect to that 
extremely important reform. 

The progress during the period 
of eight years embraced in the pres- 
ent pastorate, is indicated by the 
subjoined table, which gives the bap- 
tisms, the additions to the church 
and departures from it. 



MEMBEESHIP. BAPTISMS. 



p 

c a 

<V & 

u< 

c3 
03 


No. at last 
report. 


I Received on 1 
Profn. 
Received by - 
Letter. 


'S 


Died. 
Dismissed. 


Adults. 1 


Infants. 


1869 


121 


3 


1 


125 


2 ! 7 

i 


2 




1870 


116 


7 


5 


128 


2 3 


5 


10 


1871 


123 


1 


1 


125 


... 

j 6 


1 




1872 


119 


3 


2 


124 


...j... 
3 4 


..... 

3 


2 


1873 


117 


2 


5 


124 


4 4 


2 


1 


1874 


116 


10 


4 


130 


3 3 


8 


3 


1875 


124 


8 





132 


4|4 


2 


1 


1876 


124 


19 7 


150 


4 2 


8 2 



Since added, | 13 | 1 ) 164 Present total. 



The loss of our Academy has nev- 
er ceased to be the subject of deep 
regret, and the constant prayer of 
the church has been, that it might 
again be revived. There is now an 
encouraging prospect that this hope 
may be realized. A handsome site 
has been purchased in one of the 
most eligible parts of the village by 
the liberal lady who has already clone 
so much for the church, to which a 
large lot has been added as a gift by 
Mr. Olcott and Mr. G. W. B. Dakin 
jointly. The same lady has in con- 
templation the erection of a suitable 
academical hall for the purposes of 
the school of which plans have been 
prepared by the pastor. There is a 
house on the property capable of be- 
ing remodelled for the use of the 
principal It is hoped that all details 
in the scheme of this enterprise (which 
are still under advisement,) will soon 
be arranged, and that the ancient in- 
stitution will then enter afresh upon 
its career of beneficent influence. 

On the Fourth of July 1876 the 
Centennial of American Indepen- 
dence was made the occasion of unu 
sual demonstrations and gratitude 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 1876. 



35 



throughout the country. The Otse- 
go County Celebration was held at 
Cherry Yalley, and was an occasion 
of great interest. The presidency of 
the day was fittingly awarded to our 
venerable fellow citizen, Hon. Wm. 
W. Campbell, who has been identifi- 
ed usefully with every local move- 
ment for many years. No other 
man has given such attention, as he 
has, to the traditions of this part 
of the country. It will not be inap- 
propriate to close this account of the 
church with a brief notice of one, who, 
by his careful labors, may be said to 
have saved an interesting chapter of 
American history from oblivion. I 
draw the following chiefly from a j Historical Society. 



ers at the old Academy, was gradu- 
ated in 1827 at Union College, of 
which he has been for many years a 
Trustee, as well as one of the three 
Visitors of the Nott Trust Fund.— 
He pursued his legal studies in the 
office of the eminent Chancellor 
Kent, whose firm friendship was of 
great service to the young lawyer. — 
In 1830 a society of literature and 
historical research was formed at 
Cherry Valley, out of which grew his 
labors on the "Annals of Tyron 
County" and a number of other 
works of a historical and biographi- 
cal character, whose value led to his 
beinof made a member of the N. Y. 



sketch given by his friend, A. Stewart 
Morse M. D., to the N. Y. Era, March 
14th, 1863. His ancestors, four gen- 
erations back, formed part of the first 
body of settlers, the farm selected 



In 1843 he was elected to Con- 
gress from the city district in which 
he resided, and in 1848 one of the 
Justices of the Superior Court. Af- 
ter visiting Europe he retired to 



being that now occupied by himself. ! Cherry Valley, but was Called forth 
His grandfather was the Colonel who j to active life immediately in 1857, 
is mentioned in Chapter II, and his when he was chosen a Judge of the 
father one of those who were taken j Supreme Court of New York. Judge 
prisoners, in the massacre of which ■ Campbell's interest in his native vil- 
he was the last survivor. His moth- , lage and its old church has ever been 
er was Sarah, daughter of the re- 1 peculiarly earnest, and he takes a just 
doubtable Col. Elderkin of Windham, i pride in his own and his family's 
Conn. Mrs. Campbell was a remark- j long and honorable connection with 



able woman, the mother, as she used 
to say, of forty -two feet of boys ; 
there being seven of them, and each 
at least six feet tall. All became lib- 
erally educated, and most of them 
entered one or the other of the pro 
fessions. The eldest was the widely - 
known Alfred E. Campbell D. D. of 
N. Y. Samuel, retired from the bar 



them. He labored zealously to se- 
cure the construction of its railway, 
and for that service, as well as for 
his long and persistent efforts on be- 
half of the cause of education among 
us, with the others, who have shared 
his labors, we owe him lasting obli- 
gations. The lovely grove of Ma- 
ples on his farm, which has long 



with an ample fortune, resides on a served in place of a park or corn- 
beautiful estate at Castleton. John ' mon to the village on festal days, a 
is Chief Engineer of the Croton wa- favorite resort for the stroller or 
ter department of N. Y. city. Au- ' the picnic party, was the scene of a 
gustus is a physician at Galena, and . grand ox roast and jubilation on the 
George resides at Cherry Valley. — j occasion of the completion of the 
William, prepared like all his broth- ' railroad, the locomotive as it passed 



36 



CONCLUSION. 



the margin of the grove, waking the | ful Centennial occasion, which has 
echoes with its shrill whistle, and ( drawn fo*th such unusual expres- 
the hills giving back the unwonted J sions of mutual congratulation all 
sound with a clearness that seemed j over the country, and to the perpet- 
like the welcome to a fresh era in j uation of whose memory this little 
their long existence, and a new page , account of an old church and its nu- 
in the history of the place. The ; merous brood of children is a small 
same grove was also chosen as the | contribution, 
place for the celebration of that joy ! 

APENDIX. 

I. Cherry Valley in tlie late War. 

For the benefit of the future historian I ( village took great interest. It was attached 
give the following succinct account of names to the old 39th militia, of which Cherry 
and facts in the record of Cherry Valley in j Valley was the head-quarters. In Septem- 
the war for the Union. I could not hope to ; ber 1861, on the call for three year's men, 
make it complete in the brief time possible ! Gen. Danforth, of the local militia brigade, 
to be devoted to enquiries since the present ! was present at a parade of this company, 
work was begun. But any contribution how- ! On his asking how many from it would go, 
ever incomplete may have its value as ma- j the order was given, for such as were willing, 
terial, should that chapter of our history j to advance from the ranks, when nearly the 
ever be written out, as it certainly deserves ! whole company stepped forward. There 
to be. ! was then no bounty, and the men did not 

The first contribution was the company even know the pay. The general at once 
which was raised in April, 1861, immediate- j decided that the enlistment of the 39th 
ly after Sumter, its quarters being in the should be proceded with at Cherry Valley, 
school house near the cemetery, on the site j Bates' hop-house was used for barracks, 
of the old revolutionary fort. It was offer- | and the old M. P. Church as mess room. — 
ed at Albany, under the first call for 75,000 : Over six hundred men were recruited by the 
men. but the call having been filled it was 1st of January 1862, when they were sud- 
not received. Its captain was Geo. S. Tuck- denly ordered to Albany, and there summa- 
erman, and its lieutenants, Egbert Olcott rily consolidated with the 76th N. Y- S. V. 
and Cleveland J. Campbell. All or nearly Two of the companies, however were put 
all its members enlisted in other organiza- in the artillery under Col. Laidley. 
tions. Some of them, with others from the The 39th thus lost its identity, and the in- 
village, making ten in all, enlisted as pri- terest of the people here, followed the 76th 
vates at Albany in the 44th ("Ellsworth , through its long career down to Appomattox ; 
Avengers,") which went out in the Fall. — j what was left of it taking part there in the 
Among these Campbell rose from one grade closing strokes of the war. For it the flag 
to another in line and staff and in different ; was made. The officers from Cherry Valley 
corps, becoming a colonel, and brig. gen. by ' were as follows : Capt. A. L. Swan, who 
brevet. He died before the close of the j was bre vetted lieut, col.. Lieut. Robert Story, 
war. Olcott passed to the 121st of which | (a most gallant soldier,) who became Capt., 
he long held command, after the promotion and was killed at Gettyburg, Capt. John W. 
of Gen. Upton, and becoming a colonel ; \ Young became a major. James D. Clyde 
and William Crafts received a captain's com- ; subsequently entered as Lieut, and became a 
mission on the day he died. i captain. Of those who entered as privates in 

For years preceding there had been a fine it, Edwin J. Swan became a captain, and 
military company of which Amos L. Swan j Barnard Phenis, a Lieut., (killed at Weldon, 
was captain, and in which the people of the R- R-) Samuel Ludlam and James George 



37 



t 3came Serjeants, and Albert Gross several 
times declined;; the office, as did Solomon 
Howe, though called by Col. Swan the "ban- 
ner soldier" of the regiment. John Ste- 
vens was made color serg't at Gettysburg, 
and Irwin Baker at South Mountain both for 
bravei y. But all these men were splendid 
soldiers and only their modesty prevented 
their becoming officers, as no doubt was the 
case with some others. A History of the regi- 
ment? was published by A. P. Smith of 
Cortland. 

In the Fall of 1861, after the defeat at 
Bull Run, a troop of cavalry was formed 
under Lieut. Philip R. Wales (who became a 
Capt.) and received at N. Y., into the Ira 
Harris Cavalry, (afterwards 6th N. Y.)-r- 
John Ramsay became a first lieutenant in it, 
and James J. Fonda an ordinance serjeant. 
Also, that Fall, a squad of near a score for 
Berdan's Sharpshooters, raised by Geo. S. 
Tuckerman as Capt. and Lieut. Charles Mc- 
Lean, who was killed. Wm. McLean, his 
brother was a serjeant, and was also killed. 
In this corps John E. Hetherington after- 
wards became a captain, and Oliver J. Heth- 
erington was a serjeant, William Story 
several times persistently refused a commis- 
sion on account of a romantic friendship, 
for the sake of which he preferred the ranks. 
He and James Kraig, his alter ego were 
first in, and last out, of everything that 
was lively. J ames Hetherington, the third 
brother of the two above, went in the vol- 
unteer navy, as did also William Y. S. Bas- 
tian, John Nelson, and Thomas Brien. — 
Charles Nichols (son of the rector of Grace 
Church,) George Engle and William Nelson 
lost their lives in the navy. The residence 
of Lieut. Com. George Ranson U. S- N. was 
here though now changed to Richfield. He 
commanded the cruiser, Grand Gulf, was 
Post Capt. at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, 
and now ranks as Commander in one of 
the finest vessels of* the Navy. In August 
1862, upon the second call for three year s 
men, two companies were raised for the 
121st, whose head quarters were at Herki- 
mer. Egbert Olcott, as stated above, long ^ 
held command. He received some remark- i 
able commendations for the efficiency of 
his regiment, and his own merit as an offi- j 
cer. It was attached to the 6th Corps, and 
was engaged in all the battles of the j 
army of the Potomac up to Winchester. — ! 
Thence under Sheridan in his campaign to j 
Richmond. It got the honorable nickname ■ 
of "Upton's regulars." Other officers from 



here were captains Edwin Clark and Doug- 
las Campbell, the latter brevetted major, 
Lieut, and Adj't Francis W. Morse who be- 
came captain on the staff, and major by 
brevet, and Lieuts. James D. Clyde and 
Wm. Tucker, Edward Wales and John 
Daniels both brave fellows, became Serjeants 
and were killed. The three Wallaces, Spen- 
cer, Benjamin, and John, sons of a clergy- 
man, (the last of whom was killed,) were 
among the many privates, whose services 
were as valuable as those of many an officer. 
And John Skinnon, an old veteran of the 
British Army, was another of the same kind. 
When examined for enlistment the doctor 
pointed to a bullet scar in his chest, re- 
marking, "If that had gone an inch this 
way it would have killed you." 

"Begorra," said John, "and if it had gone 
the wan inch the other way, it wouldn't 
have hit me at all!" 

Besides these bodies of men, there went 
from the place numerous individuals in oth- 
er organizations ; including the following. 

David Little, M. D. went out as Assist. 
Surgeon of the 14th. amd became a Surgeon 
with the rank of major. Egbef t Olcott (a 
cousin of the before mentioned of the same 
name,) became a lieut. in the Regular Army. 
Delos Olcott, his brother, became a Capt. in 
the volunteers. George Little became a 
Capt, in the 127th, Louis Campbell became a 
lieutenant in the 152d, Charles Fry was an 
Assist. Surgeon in the 26th. 

Col. Olcott, Capt. Delos Olcott, Major 
Young, Capt. Ed. Swan, Capt. Clyde, and 
Lieuts. Casler of Springfield and L. Camp- 
bell were all prisoners and were among the 
officers placed under fire at Charleston dur- 
ing the bombardment. Some were ex- 
changed, but others endured unspeakable 
horrors in the prisons at Savannah, Macon 
and Columbia, gaining their liberty, with 
coustitutions in some cases totally impaired, 
only at the end of the war. 

I feel that this list is very imperfectly 
made up, as almost every day adds a name 
or an item which ought to go in. My only 
fear, however, is that the reader a hundred 
years from now will not believe that out of 
the two or three thousand people in this 
town so many could have been sent ; that 
the officers alone so far as named should 
number so many as thirty-six ;— embracing 
eleven of the rank of captain, ten of higher 
grade, six lieutenants, and at least nine ml ■ 
alterns ; and that the dead whose fate was 
ascertained should count up to forty-two. 



II. Remarks of JVtaj. Douglas Campbell 
of New York. 



At the Centennial Dinner in Cherry Yal- I 
ley, July 4th, 1876, the following toast was 
given by J. N. Clyde, Esq. 

" The President of the day : 
His literary efforts in recording the | 
early history of his town and county 
and the incidents connected with 
the Revolution, entitle him to the 
gratitude of his fellow townsmen." 

Judge Campbell who was the President of 
the day and of whom honorable mention 1 
has been made in the preceding pages was 
too unwell to be present. After the toast 
was duly honored, his son Mr. Douglas 
Campbell arose and said : 
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of Otsego : \ 

In the name of the President of 
the day, I thank you for this senti- 
ment. 

My only regret is, that he cannot j 
respond in person, but the state of 
his health forbids his presence, and I ; 
come, as his unworthy representa- j 
tive. 

I know of no occasion, which could 
so stir his heart, as the Centennial 
Celebration of our Nation's Inde- 
pendence held in old Cherry Valley. 

Nearly half a century ago, he wrote 
her Eevolutionary history; he then 



passed out into a busy life, winning 
a fair measure of its honors and suc- 
cess, but his heart always longed for 
his native hills, and while still in the 
prime of his manhood, he came back 
to pass the remainder of his days, on 
the spot where he was born. 

And, to-day, with his three score 
years and ten, his love for the old 
town and county is as ardent, his de- 
votion as intense, as when with the 
hand of boyish affection, he penned 
their history. 

And who would not love old Ot- 
sego ? 

Who ever saw such verdure as 
that which clothes her hillsides? who 
ever saw such lakes, as those which 
nestle in her bosom ? who ever saw 
such landscapes as those which open 
in an everchanging panorama, as you 
travel through her length and breadth 
No wonder 'that the first settlers nev- 
er hesitated for a monent, in their 
choice of a home, when from a 
neighboring hill they looked down 
upon her valleys. 

There is a magic something in the 
influence of such scenery upon the 



39 



mind of man, its beauty seems to 
sink into the soul, and breed the love 
of home, and love of country. 

And so, the rocky isles of Greece, 
the Alpine heights of Switzerland, the 
mountain fortresses of Scotland, are 
all immortal with the patriotism of 
their defenders. 

Such hills as those of old Otsego, 
make men patriots despite them- 
selves. 

Nearly a year before the adoption 
of the Declaration of Independence, 
the people of this district resolved, 
"to be free or die, and to defend 
their freedom with their lives and 
fortunes." 

A hundred years ago, the little 
settlement of Cherry Valley held but 
about sixty families, yet it and the 
neighboring settlement of. Newtown 
Martin (now Middlefield), sent thir- 
ty-three (33) soldiers to the field dur- 
ing the Revolutionary War. And at 
one time, I believe, every able bod- 
ied man, under sixty years of age 
was in arms in defense of their free 
dom. 

The perils of war, and the torch 
of the savage, sw T ept these hills and 
valleys as with the besom of destruc- 
tion. The Revolution made their 
farms a waste, and quenched the fires 
upon their hearth-stones, but noth- 
ing could extinguish the love of lib- 
erty, which their father's God had 
kindled in their hearts. 

We cannot find from all the records 
that a word of regret ever passed 
their lips at the sacrifices which they 
had made, to enable us to celebrate 
this day. 

Can you wonder that the descend- 
ants of those men love the old hills 
baptised with their father's blood ? 

Can you wonder that their -hearts 
beat quicker when they hear the old 
historic names of a Clyde, a Willson, 



a Moore, a Shankland, a Wells and a 
Seeber % 

Do you wonder that he whom you 
honor with this toast to-day, whose 
ancestors left Scotland for religion's 
sake, and fought in the siege of Lon- 
donderry, whose grandfather was a 
soldier in the French and Indian 
war, and in the Revolution as high- 
est in command upon the death of 
General Herkimer led off the Con- 
tinental forces from the bloody field 
of Oriskany, whose father was for 
two years a prisoner among the In- 
dians, who himself was born upon 
the very site of the old Revolution- 
ary, stockade about his ancestral 
home, and whose youth was passed 
among the survivors of the Massacre, 
do you wonder, I say, at his feeling 
that he could render no better ser- 
vice to this people, than to leave for 
their instruction a record of the men 
who made this ground historic ? 

Those times have passed away, but 
the future historian of Otsego will 
turn back to them to trace in her 
sons the influence of the example of 
their fathers. 

Of her civic history, since the Rev- 
olution, I need not speak, the coun- 
try knows it by heart. 

The pen of Cooper has thrown a 
glamour over her hills and lakes, 
making them as familiar to the world 
as household words. 

Her physicians, the Doctors White, 
her lawyers, John W 7 ells, Alvin Stew- 
art, Levi Beardsley, her historian, 
Jabez D. Hammond and scores of 
others bred in her old school houses 
are all known throughout the State, 
and wherever jurisprudence is a sci- 
ence, has been borne the name of 
her great jurist — Judge Samuel Nel- 
son. 

But the chapter of Otsego's his- 
tory which interests me most, is her 



40 



record in our wars. To my mind she 
is greatest as the nursery of soldiers. 
None of us, who were present, can 
ever forget that day in ^881, when 
in the square below, we heard that 
the flag had been fired upon at Fort 
Sumpter. Partisan feeling had run 
high here, as it always did. I had 
made my first speech the year before 
at a political meeting in the neigh- 
boring town of Middlefield, we had 
been Republicans and Democrats, 
but the Union was assailed, and we 
were all Americans. 

I know not how many went out 
from here, but I do know that nearly 
every able bodied man shouldered 
his musket. I went into another 
part of the county to raise soldiers, 
and in one village near Cooperstown 
every man capable of bearing arms 
enlisted in my company. And what 
a record the old county made ! 

A great General of the Army told 
me, that he never saw such fighters 
as the boys from Otsego and Her- 
kimer; no danger appalled, no hard- 
ships disheartened them, their names 
are written in letters of living light 
on every battle-field from Bull Kun 
to Appomattox. 

And how their friends at home 
upheld their arms ! They were the 
ones who suffered. The Coopers- 
town mother to whom we sent home 
two coffins enclosing the bodies of 
her husband and only boy, the old 
father now with us, who has as the 
chief solace for his declining years 
the remembrance of his two gallant 
sons, old playmates of mine, whose 
names are inscribed on the monu- 
ment in the square below, the 
aged parents, without number, who 
daily with aching eyes, looked out 
for tidings of their boys from South- 
ern prisons, or met them as they 
came home to die, those were the 



martyrs, those were the heroes. 

Before the war closed, old Otsego 
was draped in funereal black, but 
through all their tears, I never heard 
a murmur from the lips of the be- 
reaved. 

It is with a feeling of sadness that 
I come here to-day, for I remember 
so well the last Fourth of July which 
I celebrated in Cherry Valley, it was 
fifteen years ago, in 1861, just after 
the opening of the Rebellion. 

I look around now for the faces of 
the young men who made that Cele- 
bration what it was, my kinsmen, my 
old schoolmates, the friends of my 
childhood, and I seem to see only 
vacant places, for most of them are 
lying in the churchyard or in South- 
ern graves, and yet they are not lost, 
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was borne across 
the sea, 

With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you 
and me, 

As he died to make men holy, so they died to make 
men free." 

Our fathers promulgated the Dec- 
laration of Independence, our sons 
and brothers made it a living actual- 
ity; our fathers died to give freedom 
to their descendants, our sons and 
brothers died to give freedom to the 
world. 

And on that roll, where the his- 
torian has emblazoned for us the 
names of those who one hun- 
dred years ago made these hills 
and valleys sacred soil, the future 
historian will side by side inscribe 
for our descendants, the names of 
the sons of old Otsego, who have 
made the whole Union sacred with 
their blood. 

And now, Mr. Chairman, you have 
toasted the President of the day who 
wrote the history of this county, I 
wish to give a toast, and ask that it 
may be drank standing and in silence. 

"The patriot dead of old Otsego, 
the men who made her history.'' 



AN 



/ 



HISTORICAL ACCOUNT 



OF THE 



PEESBYTEEIAN CHURCH, 

AT 



CHERRY VALLEY, N. Y. 



Given in compliance with the recommendation of General Assembly for 
Preservation in the Archives of the Presbyterian 
Historical Society at Philadelphia. 



JBY j^EV. ji. JJ. jSwTNNERTON, ^t. JA., ^RINC. 

J"he present JPastor. 



CHERRY VALLEY, N. Y., 
"gazette" peint. 
1876. 



Copyrighted. 



o 



